The Return of the Cursed Gift
by Talkingbirdguy
Summary: Sequel to Curse of the Lucario. Jacob Simmons, son of Jason Simmons, is on a date when the same fate that befell his father many years before decided to take a shot at him. Needless to say, he is not pleased when his father, the only other known person who has turned into a Pokemon, suddenly disappears without warning. Please review. Suggested that you read COTL before this.
1. Constant Vigilance

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 1

Yes readers, it is I, it is I, Talkingbirdguy. (It rhymed and sounded cool, sue me! :P) And I have, for your entertainment and delight, the very first chapter to the sequel of Curse of the Lucario! *Roar of applause that reverberates around the planet*

I suggest, that if you haven't read Curse of the Lucario yet, you do so. Even though this will be good even if you don't, some details may be confusing and might seem random if you don't know the story behind it. But whatever, your choice.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just the story that I have created and all original characters I have created.

Without further blah blah blah that most will probably skip anyways, enjoy :).

* * *

Constant Vigilance

Even after Team Styx had been wiped off of the face of the planet, I never really gave up that small amount of paranoia that made me think that some aspect of Team Styx had survived.

I always was watching the news, keeping an eye out for any signs of Team Styx's survival. Then I got complacent. I believed that Team Styx had finally and truly been eradicated. This turned out to be a mistake. A big, big mistake.

And while it hurt me, it hurt my family so much more.

* * *

Chapter 1

After making sure I was mentally and physically stable, I was released from the hospital and returned home with my parents. (Narri left us to go traveling and returned to his home after travelling for a few years to different places.)

For the first year after I returned to being human, the biggest threats I faced were rabid reporters and overly enthusiastic people seeking autographs. I decided, so the reporters would back off, to grant an interview to a few of them. I told them my story from my perspective (leaving out certain details that would have landed me in an asylum) and they aired it on the TV for years afterwards. Heck, I still see it from time to time.

Well, once I told them everything they wanted to know, they slowly lost interest in me and soon left me (mostly) alone. Surprisingly, there was even a movie made based on my story. It was pretty good, if a bit lacking on a few details. Since it was based on me, they legally had to give me some sort of compensation. So I got a small cut of the movie profits (which wasn't small in the slightest!).

Two years after I turned back human, I was able to go out in public without the need for someone accompanying me. I was still stared at and asked for the occasional autograph, but it wasn't usually too much of an irritation. The stares I had received as a Lucario had made me almost fully immune to the stares my blue hair and red pupils caused.

Five years after and I had already moved out and was living on my own nearby the Lucario sanctuary. I had accepted a job from Mr Ignacious that was involved in helping protect the Lucario sanctuary from trainers and other threats. Being so close to the Lucario sanctuary, I was able to keep in contact with Narri, my best friend and oldest companion. My ability to channel and use aura made the Lucario that lived there respect me as though I was a Lucario myself.

I'm able to use aura to "see" about twenty meters around me with my eyes closed. I'm able to speak to others with aura, to a certain extent. I'm able to create a slightly smaller form of an aura sphere. And, only when I have meditated for a short time, I am able to mold my aura to create small objects that last for almost half an hour before disappearing. Those are a few things I managed to do with aura, but not everything.

After getting his education, Shade went to work for the WPO. His job required him to travel a lot, so I saw him pretty infrequently over the years. We stayed friendly and he stayed at our house a few times, so we were still pretty good friends even if I didn't see him very often.

A side affect of working for Mr Ignacious, that I am incredibly grateful for, was that I got to get to know Hannah Ignacious. (Yes, the very same girl who's Ninetails tackled me and knocked me on my butt. Lucy is still being a pain in the butt all these years later). I started dating Hannah and ten years after I turned back into a human, and three years of dating, we got married. A year later, we had a son.

We named him Jacob. While we were both worried that he would inherit odd traits from me, due to the tiny amount of Pokemon DNA in my system, it was not a problem. He had no odd physical traits and was deemed perfectly healthy by medical professionals. When he started growing hair, we saw that he would inherit some of my blue hair, but it was only shown in small streaks through his regular brown hair.

I watched Jacob as he grew up and checked to see if he had inherited any of my talent with controlling aura. I figured out that he had no skill when it came to using aura, but made sure to never make him feel bad about it.

Well, we bought a nice house close by the Lucario sanctuary and raised Jacob there. It was in a small city that was not really too prominent on the map, but it was only a few miles away from the sanctuary and was a pleasant place. It being so isolated had the added side affect of less people finding and bothering me.

When Hannah's grandfather, Mr Ignacious, died, she inherited both most of his fortune and his mansion. Combined with the money that I got from allowing a movie to be made about me, we were considerably wealthy. While we contemplated living in the mansion, we both knew that neither of us would like the amount of work (or money) needed for its upkeep. So we decided to continue living where we had chose to raise Jacob and sold the mansion. We made sure to add conditions to the sell, to make sure that those who lived there did not try to expand into the sanctuary and create problems for the Pokemon that were already there.

Narri also settled down and had a family (with Pip of all the female Lucario!). They had a kid, a female Riolu that they named Luna when Jacob was five and those two became very good friends. I became a regular visitor to the Lucario village where Narri settled. I would visit sometimes on business. But most of the time I visited so Jacob could play with Luna, and partly so I could relax in those heavenly hot springs.

Though our excursions to said heavenly hot springs was cut down drastically when, unbeknownst to Narri and myself, Jacob (age 7) and Luna (age 2) decided to sneak off and play with the other Riolu in the village. While this in itself was a regular occurrence, the game that which ended in a pissed off Beedrill swarm attacking the village, however, was not. I still don't know how they managed to sneak close enough to the hive to drench it in berry juice.

But after that fiasco (or at least after Pip and Hannah heard about it) both me and Narri were forbidden to go anywhere near the hot spring while Luna or Jacob were out playing.

When Mr Ignacious had passed, I lost my job. I didn't have to worry too much thanks to the substantial amount of money we had in the bank. At some point, I had a stroke of brilliance and asked the people in charge of the area for permission to take up Mr Ignacious' job. They gave their consent, and I was given the official duty of taking care of the Sanctuary. This was actually a big responsibility, but I managed to do it quite well.

When Jacob was ten, I made sure to bring him along with me when I went to the sanctuary and taught him all about the different Pokemon that lived there. He always seemed to enjoy it, so I made sure to take him along after school and on weekends every chance I could.

Sometimes, when it was late and Luna was at our house, she would spend the night. And, when it was late and we were at the Sanctuary, I would let Jacob spend the night. Because of Jacob's closeness with Luna at such a young age, he began to understand a lot of what Luna said to him when she spoke in Pokemon language. While he couldn't understand most other Pokemon, he could understand Riolu and Lucario with a high rate of success.

Luna, along with Narri and Pip, basically became family and we visited each other often. Though I would usually visit Narri more often since it was easier for me to drive the couple of miles than for him to walk them.

Luna evolved into a Lucario when Jacob was fourteen and just entering high school. While they remained friends, they started moving apart as they grew older. He also started to move away from me. He started coming to the Sanctuary with me less and less as he got older.

While I was put down by this, I knew that it was natural and didn't push too hard against it.

One night, I got a call from the local police about a recent jump in aggressive Pokemon near the Sanctuary. While this didn't happen too often, it did happen about 18 or so times every year. I would usually go in, sometimes with Jacob sometimes alone, and try to find the aggressive Pokemon. I would then try to figure out what caused the Pokemon's aggression and fix it. If I was unable to figure out what was wrong or the Pokemon stayed violent, I would call the Pokemon Rangers and have them send someone.

I've worked with Roderick Greene (Rick) on numerous occasions after he reached his goal to become a Pokemon Ranger. I managed to pull in his name when I was doing one of those interviews and made sure to put emphasis on his goal to become a Ranger. Three days after, I got a excited call from Rick thanking me for setting him up with a Ranger.

Well, he gave me his personal number to call if I ever needed help or a favor and thanks to the position he reached in the Ranger organization, I had the ability to get a Ranger to the sanctuary in under an hour.

I told the police that I would check in on the aggressive Pokemon and keep them updated on the situation before hanging up. As I gathered a few supplies, (a few pokeballs in case of injured Pokemon who need major medical attention, some medical supplies, some Pokemon food, and some energy bars), I visited Jacob's (age 16) room.

I knocked on the door and heard, "come in."

I opened the door to find him studying on two shirts that he had laid on his bed.

I suddenly remembered about the date he was preparing for. He had informed me of it three days prior, but naturally, I had forgot.

"Whatchya need?", he asked while not taking his eyes off the two shirts.

I chuckled and said, "well, I was about to invite you to come and take care of come aggressive Pokemon, but I remembered about your date."

He took his eyes off the shirts and gave me an apologetic look.

"Sorry, I wish I could come. I really do!"

I raised my hand to ward off his apologies.

"It's no problem. Make sure you're back home by ten, please. And have a good time."

He nodded and said, "wait," as I started to leave the room. I leaned back in and he held up the shirts.

"Which one looks better?"

I studied them for a moment before pointing and saying, "the blue one. The other has a stain on the sleeve."

I exited the room chuckling at his expression of surprise at the stain that he must not have noticed and would not have if not for me pointing it out.

I heard him yell, "thanks!", as I walked down the stairs and smiled.

After double checking that I hadn't forgotten anything important, I kissed Hannah goodbye and carefully avoided Lucy's slumbering form as I went out the front door and to my vehicle. I drove to the Sanctuary and parked my vehicle on the side of the road near where the police reported most of the aggressive behavior happening. The sun had set a few minutes earlier, and while most would need a flashlight or something at the time I entered the forest, I just closed my eyes and extended my aura.

After making sure my aura vision was stable, I began walking deeper into the forest. While my maximum width with aura sight was almost twenty meters standing still, it was reduced to fifteen meters while walking. The quality if the sight did not get any worse while walking, so I was easily able to avoid trees and roots that would trip me up.

As I walked, I had a strange feeling that something was amiss. It was as though there was some sort of heavy presence in the atmosphere that seemed to whisper in your ear and rile you up. I felt strangely irritated, and knew that there was no cause to the irritation.

The deeper I went, the more I had to suppress the feeling of annoyance that got stronger with every step.

I couldn't concentrate well enough to continue using aura sight and opened my eyes. An added bonus I discovered was that my night vision was very good. While not as good as an actual Lucarios eyes, they were able to see in the dark enough to make sure I didn't walk into trees or stumble over roots.

I realized, even through my strange irritation, that there were no sounds of life anywhere around me. I had a good sense of hearing from before I transformed, and my ears became 60% keener after my transformation. Even when I wasn't paying attention, I should have been hearing some of the nocturnal Pokemon flying or running about. When I concentrated, I could usually hear a Sandshrew as it burrowed underground.

I concentrated, and heard nothing. Along with my irritation, I developed a sense of worry. Whatever was causing all these Pokemon to become aggressive, it had also scared them off. I continued to walk deeper into the forest and started hearing a ringing in my ear that seemed to urge me to punch a tree, a bush, the ground, anything and everything.

It was at that point that I pulled out my phone and dialed a number before putting it to my ear. After a few seconds of ringing, I heard someone say, "hello?"

"Hey Rick," I said, using extreme self control to keep the strange irritation from creeping into my voice.

"Hey Jason, anything wrong? You sound a little tense." Guess he picked up on that.

"Well I got a call from the police about some aggressive Pokemon. You know, the usual. Well, I've been walking in the area where the Pokemon were reported to be and something strange is happening."

"Strange how?" He was using his "Ranger tone" as I liked to call it, and was paying full attention to my words.

"Well ever since I got into the forest, I've noticed a distinct lack of any Pokemon life. And for awhile now, I've had an unexplainable irritation appear. It's recently gotten stronger and evolved into anger. I can feel myself wanting to punch stuff. I'm hardly able to speak civilly right now."

There was a slight pause and Rick said, "okay, well I'll send somebody over immediately. Do you feel like you should back off and-"

"I'm not a child who need your help!", I shouted and immediately regretted it.

"Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that."

Rick had a worried tone in his voice now.

"Look, I'm not being condescending, but you really should go back to your vehicle and wait for us to get there."

I started walking in the direction I had came and said, "us?"

I heard some movement on his end and he said, "yes. I'm coming along with another ranger who should arrive within the next twenty minutes or so."

"Wait, aren't you on the other side of the continent?"

"Yes, I'll have my partner teleport me to your location as soon as I report this to my superiors. Just get to your vehicle and wait there until the other Ranger gets there."

"Okay," I answered, feeling much less angry now that I had traveled away from whatever was causing my irritation.

He hung up and I made my way to my vehicle. I sat on the hood, feeling completely calm, when I saw a flash of light and a figure appeared a little ways from my vehicle. (The Rangers had developed a system where physic types were able to teleport people where they needed to go without having to go with them.)

The moment the figure appeared, I hopped off the hood and made my way towards the Ranger.

I saw the guy, who looked to be about twenty, tense up at the sound of my footsteps.

"Who's that?", he said, searching his pockets for something.

"Relax. I'm Jason Simmons. Rick sent you here at my request."

He paused for a moment and got less tense, but continued to search through his pockets.

"Oh, sorry about that. Can't see anything out here. Don't you have a light or something?"

I shrugged and was thankful that it was too dark for him to realize the stupid action I had done in response to his question.

"Don't need much light to see. I can see very well in near pitch black darkness. But here," I got out my small flashlight I had brought and shined it to the side to avoid blinding him.

Even not shined directly at him, he still squinted when I turned it on.

"Thanks. Now can you please explain the situation? I was told a few details, but only the bare minimum."

"Sure. Here," I handed him the flashlight and waved for him to follow me as I walked towards the forest.

"I'll explain along the way," I said and he followed me. I explained to him why I was there and pointed out the lack of life around us. When we got close enough, I explained how I felt a sense of irritation that stemmed from no source that I could tell.

"And when I got closer, I felt irritation turn into anger and felt like I needed to punch something. Can you feel it?"

He gave me an odd look and shook his head.

"I don't feel anything like you describe."

I stopped, confused at his answer. After a moment, I said, "do you have a Pokemon with you?"

He nodded and grabbed a pokeball from a pocket.

"Yeah, why?"

"Let it out, I want to see something."

He opened the pokeball and a Meowth appeared. The moment the cat Pokemon came out, it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. The Meowth seemed to tense up and started growling at us in a menacing manner.

The Ranger looked at the Meowth with an expression of extreme confusion.

"Meowth? What's wrong? Why are you so tensed up?" The way he was acting told me that the Meowths behavior was not its usual temperament and confirmed a theory that I had come up with.

"I suggest you return him to his pokeball," I suggested and he nodded.

He raised the pokeball and the Meowth jumped to the side to dodge the red beam of light. He then got his claws out and lunged for the Ranger.

I shoved the guy, who was too shocked to move, and grabbed the Meowths tail as it flew by.

I held the furious Pokemon away from my body as he tried to scratch me furiously. I ran the way we had come, and stopped when the Meowth stopped trying to scratch me and instead hung limply.

I set him down, watching for any sign of aggression as I did so. The Meowth sat on the ground and he looked at the ground in what was unmistakably a sorrowful look.

I knelt on my knees and patted the Meowth on the head and said, "it's okay. I know that you didn't mean to attack me. It's whatever that is causing that feeling that made you. You don't need to feel bad. I'm sorry if I hurt you, I hope you can forgive me."

The Meowth purred and rubbed his head against my hand. I was forgiven. The Ranger jogged up to us and kept his distance as he asked, "is Meowth okay?"

I nodded and said, "yes. I think, whatever it is, only affects the temperaments of Pokemon. That's the reason it didn't affect you at all but had such a big affect on your Meowth."

"But why did it affect you if it only affects Pokemon?"

I chuckled and stood up.

"That's cause I've got some Pokemon DNA in me. About 17% according to my last checkup."

To answer the upcoming question before he even asked it, I raised my hand and brought an aura sphere into being.

His eyes widened when he connected the blue hair and my name.

One. Two. Three. Fo-

"You're that guy that turned into a Lucario!", he shouted after he figured it out.

"Yup, now can we focus on this problem first and then I'll answer any ten questions you ask me once we solve whatever is wrong. Until then, please hold off your inquisitive flood. Agreed?"

I had faced this problem before, but had developed a method that gave the curious person what they wanted and allowed me to do whatever I needed to do.

The Ranger took about ten seconds before nodding.

"Good," and I let my aura sphere fade away as I turned to the Meowth.

"Go ahead and put Meowth in the pokeball while it's safe to do so. We'll have to solve this problem without Pokemon help."

He returned his Meowth and shrunk the pokeball before storing it into one of his pockets.

I waved for him to follow and started walking in the direction that the source of irritation originated.

I stopped a little ways from the point where the irritation began and said, "on second thought, go ahead and begin asking questions. Perhaps it will help distract me from the irritation and anger long enough for us to take care of the problem."

He grinned excitedly and asked, "only ten, or more?"

"Go ahead and continue asking however many you wish. Just forgive me if I seem a little snappish or annoyed when answering."

He nodded enthusiastically and began walking.

"Okay, umm. Do you have any fur?"

I laughed at one or the most often asked questions I got and shook my head.

"No. Just the blue coloring in my hair. Next." Even as I felt the irritation creep in, I felt as though it was blunted now that I was distracted from it.

"Is it true your eyes are red?"

"Just the pupils. Next."

"Do you have any other Lucario-like characteristics that are not obvious?"

"I have better hearing and a better sense of smell. My eyesight is a little more sharp than before I transformed, but not enough to be superhuman. My sense of taste is also a little more keen than most. No other physical characteristics than my hair and eyes to note. Next."

"Is your best friend a Lucario?"

"Yeah, his name is Narri. And no. Before you can ask, I'm not going to introduce you to him."

I saw by his expression that I had hit his next question spot on.

He recovered and said, "does anybody else in your family have the same amount of control over aura that you do?"

That caused a pang of sadness that the irritation multiplied and caused me to snap out, "no. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!"

I stopped when I processed my own words and said, "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

He waved his hand, "it's okay. That was kind of personal. What moves can you use? Aside from aura sphere, of course."

I let the distraction from the question quell the irritation and anger as I answered, "metal claw, bone rush, close combat. Though that last one causes me to nearly pass out after using it. The strain is just too much for the human body. Next."

"Can you hear that?", He asked and I stopped, confused. Then I noticed that there were sounds coming from in front of us.

I waved for him to follow me and I began jogging in the direction of the sound of life. As we got closer, I felt the thing causing my anger SPIKE! I felt myself shaking from the fury that coursed through my body. Finding no reason and needing none, I began full on sprinting. The adrenalin that pumped through my body let me far outpace the Ranger that tried to catch up to me.

I saw, from a sort of displaced place as though from a distance, people standing in a well lit clearing and I sprinted to them.

The moment I entered the clearing, I felt most of my fury drain away, leaving me with a lot of adrenalin and little common sense.

I bellowed at the top of my lungs in a voice that, frankly, scared me, "**what have you done**!"

The whole clearing had frozen, shocked that a random man had barged in and screamed at them with, seemingly, no provocation.

I felt my anger drain away completely and I was able to analyze the situation better.

The clearing was lit by four large lights set up on trees. This showed that they (whoever they are) planned to stay for awhile. The clearing had a large machine which was humming and had a big sphere, the size of a basketball, on top that seemed to vibrate menacingly. Two separate tents had been put up that held computer equipment and other machines that I didn't recognize.

The people themselves (there were seven of them doing various tasks) were all wearing the same general clothes, nondescript black jackets with black pants and brown gloves. The similarities in clothing told me that they wore uniforms, but for who?

They came out of their frozen state and a man who looked to be about my age faced me and said, "you are Jason Simmons?"

This sent alarm bells ringing through my head.

"Are you the cause of that infernal irritation?", I asked, deciding on the spot that whoever they were, they did not mean well.

The man smiled and nodded to two other people who had been in one tent. They reached down at their hips and that was all the incentive I needed to form two separate aura spheres and chuck them into their midst.

The man who had nodded jumped out of both of the aura spheres blast radius'. But the two I had aimed for had been effectively taken out along with two others who had been nearby. My other sphere was successful in connecting with the machine at the middle of the clearing and blew it to bits.

Before I could react by sending more aura spheres and taking the other tent down, the feeling of rage returned with an avenging spirit. I fell to my knees as I grabbed my head and screamed in both fury and pain. It had been debilitating to have emotions that do not stem from natural sources shoved into me.

I could hardly stop screaming, let alone stop the man when he walked up to me and smirked before smashing his elbow into the back of my head, stripping me of all vestiges of consciousness I had.

* * *

And there it is people, the first chapter of The Return of the Cursed Gift. If you've read Curse of the Lucario, you'll understand why I chose the title. If you have read COTL and still don't understand the reason I chose this title, PM me and I'll try to explain. If you have yet to read COTL and ask me, it'll ruin a little bit of the story and you won't be able to appreciate it fully, so please don't ask if you've yet to read it.

Also, the next chapter will be in the POV of Jason's son, Jacob. In fact, this story will be in Jacob's POV. At least, most of it will. It will occasionally switch back to Jason, but in the most part it will be in Jacob's POV.

Any and all questions are welcome via PM and review (as long as I am able to respond to it. That's means to please not ask me anything I can't answer directly, guest reviewers!)

But anyways, review please! It's food for the soul and constructive criticism keeps my ego in check :P. So if you noticed anything, don't hesitate to say so.

(Ps, since school literally started about 6 or 7 hours before I posted this chapter, that means that my writing time will be severely cut down. I apologize for this, and will spend most of my free time writing and posting.)

With all that taken care of, Talkingbirdguy is outta here!


	2. Like father like son

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 2

Okay people, chapter 2 is out! The roof has now been elevated! :P

Thanks for the reviews and suggestions and blah blah blah.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just the story that I have created and all original characters I have created.

Enjoy :)

Like father like son.

Chapter 2

JACOB'S POV

* * *

I had spent the last fifteen minutes staring at the two shirts that I had laid on the bed. One was blue. The other was red. They both were the same style of shirt and both would match the pair of pants I had chosen. Both were the same price (not that expensive due to my habit to try to spend as little as possible on clothes). Both fit me in the same way.

But choosing between the two for my upcoming date was a task that should have been given to a bomb diffusing expert! Which one would she like more?

I was considering creating an actual list of all the pros and cons of both shirts when I heard a knock come from my closed door.

I said, "come in," on reflex while still keeping my eyes locked on the two shirts.

The door opened and there was a pause before I asked, "whatchya need?"

I heard my dad chuckle and he said, "well, I was about to invite you to come and take care of some aggressive Pokemon, but I remembered about your date."

I felt a rush of guilt and took my eyes off the shirts.

"Sorry, I wish I could come. I really do!" And I did mean it. I had been going to the Lucario Sanctuary less and less with him. I hadn't seen Luna in almost three weeks. We had been best friends even before either of us could speak properly and had never been apart that long. It was due to my closeness to her that I was able to understand Pokemon language to an extent.

It was nothing that Luna or my dad had done that drove me to come to the Sanctuary less and less. It was just life. Specifically, high school life. While I mostly divided my time evenly between hanging out with Luna and my friends when I was in middle school, I started spending more time with my high school friends than with Luna when I entered the ninth grade. Thankfully, neither my dad nor Luna seemed to hold it against me.

Evidence of that rose when my dad held up his hand and said, "It's no problem. Make sure you're back home by ten, please. And have a good time."

I nodded and he started to exit the room before I called out, "wait!"

He leaned back in and I held up the two shirts.

"Which one looks better?" I decided to wear whichever he chose, just to end the heated debate that my mind was waging. I never really put much thought into the clothes I wore, so the debate got tiring before it really got under way.

He studied them for a few seconds before pointing and saying, "the blue one. The other has a stain on the sleeve."

He smiled at my incredulous expression when I heard his words and I heard him laughing as he left.

I yelled, "thanks!", and I knew he heard me even if he didn't respond.

The decision made, I put the red one back in my closet with a mental note to take care of that stain at a later date.

I put the blue one on and examined myself in the mirror that was almost as tall as I was (my height being 6 feet, 1 inch.)

I made sure my hair was combed to perfection. While the blue streaks among the brown might be mistaken for highlights, they were actually my natural hair. I didn't tell many people that because then they wouldn't believe me unless I told them the reason behind how I could grow blue hair.

Because if everybody found out that my dad was THE Jason Simmons, the only known person to have turned into a Pokemon, I would become semi famous. I didn't want that. I didn't want to become "Jason Simmons' son" and get a lot of new "friends" after revealing the fact. I had told no one who I didn't trust and the ones who I did tell were cool enough to simply accept it and forget about it.

I hadn't even told Andrea, my upcoming date, about who my dad was. She had met him before, at some school event for a few minutes, but never really spoke to him. I'm actually surprised more people haven't realized who my dad was, with his completely blue hair and red pupils. (Perhaps they just thought he wore special contacts or something?)

I had met Andrea in ninth grade on the first day of high school. We quickly became friends, but I never got enough courage to ask her on an actual date until the summer before eleventh grade. Yes, I know, two years after I met her. What can I say, I'm not the dating type.

She accepted and I made a reservation at a semi fancy restaurant. I would drive there alone and meet her at exactly 6:45 PM. I thanked Arceus that I could drive myself and didn't have to have one of my parents drop me off.

It was about 5:50 PM by the time I decided that I couldn't do much else to improve my image. So I just sat and read a book, trying not to get any of my clothes wrinkled, until it was time for me to go.

I headed downstairs and gave my mom a kiss before hurrying out to my vehicle. I didn't even bother trying to avoid sleeping Ninetails on my way. She would have taken that opportunity to claw a hole in my pants or shirt or force me to go change with some other sort of prank. That is, she would have if I hadn't spiked her food earlier with some sleeping powder I had got from a friend. Assured that Lucy would not be able to prank me and ruin my image, I boldly stepped over the slumbering Pokemon, and was promptly tripped by one of her tails coming up right as my foot passed over her.

I tumbled to the ground, just barely missing hitting Lucy on my way down. The sounds of laughter told me that Lucy had not fallen for the spiked food and that I had only a few seconds before she messed up my clothes further than the fall already had.

I scrambled to get up when I heard Lucy's footsteps start coming towards me and barely dodged her tongue from licking my hair. It is nearly impossible to get Ninetails spit out of hair due to it hardening in seconds! I can tell you that from past experience!

The Ninetails jumped on top of me and strained to push her tongue closer to my head. Her laughing so hard was probably the only thing that kept her from beating my resistance.

Not even caring how girly it sounded, I yelled, "moooooom! Lucy's trying to mess up my hair!"

The Pokemon quickly jumped off of me and curled up on the ground, for all appearances, asleep.

My mom came in and frowned at Lucy with what I had nicknamed long ago her patented, "Human Mean Look".

"You're not fooling anyone with that act. Now stop messing with Jacob before his date. Got it!"

I knew that Lucy had seen the loophole, and she nodded without hesitation.

I sighed, knowing that I was going to be pranked harder for calling my mom to the scene, and made my way to my flatbed truck. I drove quickly, to make up for lost time, and arrived at the restaurant parking lot at 6:30 PM.

I waited for ten minutes, using the time to make sure I looked okay, before getting out and heading inside.

I saw Andrea sitting inside and quickly made my way to where she was sitting. I saw that she wore an expensive blue dress that made me very glad that my dad had pointed out the blue shirt instead of the red one. Her long blonde hair was straightened to perfection and draped over her shoulders when she turned her head one way or the other.

"Hey," she said with a smile and I nodded at her before sitting down beside her, making sure not to sit too close.

We made small talk until a waitress called out, "Simmons?"

I raised my hand and we followed the waitress to our table. We passed by a few Pokemon on the way to our table, but not many. Most restaurants technically allowed people to keep their Pokemon out of their Pokeballs, but it was sort of an unspoken rule to not do it in fancy places unless they were very well behaved.

The waitress waited until we were sitting and took our drink orders while setting down two minus on the table. She left and I was left with Andrea.

I took a minute to admire our surroundings. The tables were adorned with black tablecloths. The walls had assorted kinds of art on them. The chairs were nice looking and comfortable. All the things you would expect in a nice restaurant.

"You ready for school yet?", Andrea said, breaking the silence that had formed without me noticing.

"Nah, I'm still enjoying the break," I answered with a shrug and a small smile.

She laughed and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm not ready either."

She started to say something else, but then the waitress came back with our drinks and asked if we were ready to order.

Andrea pointed to her menu and said what she wanted while I scrambled to decide what I wanted in that ten second period.

I pointed to something I could barely pronounce that had a picture that looked interesting next to it and the waitress wrote it down. She left and Andrea said, "you didn't even look at your menu before she came, did you?"

I gave her a mareepish smile and shook my head.

"Nope, I was too busy admiring this place. I've never been here."

She nodded, then said, "I've only been here once before. So I already knew what I wanted."

I laughed said, "cheater."

She stuck her tongue out at me and we both started laughing quite loudly, earning some disapproving stares from some other tables.

Just when I was about to slow down on the laughing, a sharp pain jabbed me in my chest and my laughter was cut off in an instant, to be replaced with a groan.

Andrea stopped laughing when she saw me rubbing my chest with a grimace.

"Are you okay?", she asked, concerned.

I felt the pain recede and forced my face into a smile while waving my hand in a "it's nothing" gesture.

"It's fine. Guess I laughed a little too much." But I knew it was a lie. I knew the pain associated with laughing a lot. This felt nothing like that.

She kept that concerned look, but said no more on it. We started talking about something else and she lost the look.

Five minutes after the pain in my chest, I felt something in my eyes as we were discussing one of our more dramatic friends antics.

I clamped my hands to my eyes as I felt them seem to... burn. But this was different than getting sand or dirt in your eyes. This pain seemed to ignite at the center and caused everything to go completely blurry before popping back into focus without explanation.

"Jacob? Is everything alright?", Andrea asked and I blinked away a few tears before looking back up.

Before I could respond to tell her that everything was fine, her eyes widened and her mouth opened in what was obviously shock.

"What? What's wrong," I asked, looking behind me and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

She leaned in and whispered, "your eyes! They're red!"

I blinked in surprise at her unexpected words, snatched up my spoon, and looked at my reflection in the silverware. Sure enough, my iris' (usually a bright blue), were now a dark red. A strange thought came into my head. Those eyes... they were familiar. But where had I seen them before.

I was speechless and didn't hear Andrea until she said in a forceful tone, "Jacob!"

I dropped the spoon in surprise and barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground and made a racket.

I placed it carefully on the table, noticing that my fingers were shaking while I did that.

"Are you okay? Tell me the truth," Andrea said, looking very concerned this time.

I smiled, but gave up when I knew that it looked completely forced.

"I have no clue what's going on. Look, I'll let you know if anything else happens. But it seems to have subsided so I don't think we have to worry." I was being truthful. All the discomfort had faded completely and, while I was freaking out and worried, I didn't want to screw up this date.

She got a thoughtful look then nodded.

"Fine. But if anything else happens, I'm taking you straight to a doctor. And no arguing!", she added that last part as I opened my mouth to protest.

I shut my mouth and gave my consent with a nod. I knew that look in her eyes. It said, "if you dare argue, I'm going to knock you out and force you to do it anyways." I knew, from personal experience, she meant business when she had that look. So I didn't dare go against her.

Only about thirty seconds after giving that consent, I had to clench my teeth to not let out a groan at pain that suddenly appeared in my midsection. Andrea was distracted by a waiter dropping some silverware long enough for me to drop the smile and let my face morph into a mask of pain for a moment before it faded.

"Andrea, I-", I began to excuse myself to the bathroom, but stopped talking due to a sudden explosion of pain across my entire body that forced me to my feet and caused the chair behind me to fall over.

"Jacob! What's wrong?!" I barely heard her voice as I sunk to my knees from the all-consuming agony that coursed through my being. I didn't even have the capacity to scream, I just groaned loudly.

The pain seemed to lessen for a moment, and I began to stand back up, but then I felt it become more focused. It began with my legs and arms.

They changed their shape so quickly that any pain associated with the transformation went unnoticed. I felt my shoes rip slightly and I knew they were unfit to be called footwear any longer. My jeans hid my legs from my sight, but I felt fur sprout from my skin nonetheless. I could actually see the fur as it sprouted out of my skin like weeds on steroids. It felt... prickly. Once my arms and legs had been fully covered in the fur, and change shape fully, I saw two separate spikes (that seemed to be made of pure bone) burst from the back of both of my hands.

I closed my eyes and felt my torso and face shift, while not moving an inch. The world tilted sickeningly before snapping back into place with the sound of tearing cloth and causing me to fall on my butt, that's how I discovered my new tail, by nearly crushing it.

I opened my eyes, ignoring the beautiful surroundings that had fallen deathly silent, and staring in horror at my hands... paws. My saw that I know had three fingers.

It only took a second for me to piece it all together. The red eyes. The chest spike (which had created a large hole in my shirt) and spikes on the back of my hands. The strange organ like things hanging on both sides of my head. The blue and black fur. Three fingered hands. Strangely shaped legs.

I had done what my father had done so many years before. I had turned into a Lucario in the middle of my date. Fan-freaking-tastic!

Speaking of my date, I looked up from my paws to see Andrea standing there with a strange expression. I saw that she had a small cut on her hand that hadn't been there before and I saw that there was a tiny bit of blood on the back of my right hand spike. She must have gotten too close and I must have accidentally scratched her with my spike without realizing it.

"Jacob-" her voice was cut off by a shrill scream from one of the restaurants other customers. At the sound, I felt a shot of primal fear and jumped to my feet and began to run. Not really thinking about what I was doing, I just ran.

The small amount of people who were in my way quickly got out of my path as I barreled through the restaurant and out of the front doors. I thought about driving, but decided that in my mental state, it might has well been drinking while intoxicated. My mind was in a total lockdown from my panic, just screaming, "get to a safe place! Then I'll let you have control again so you can freak out in a more controlled manner!" (Apparently my primal self is quite thoughtful, sort of.)

I began running. I used my new muscles with great affect and before I realized it, I was only a little ways from home. I had done what was normally a thirty minute drive in only forty minutes by running all out and not slowing down at all. I only paid attention to my surroundings if they were in my way. I would then get around or over the obstacle and continue onward. When I looked back on it later, I had done some impressive leaps over a few vehicles and fences that I would not have probably been able to do if I was in my right mind.

I finally started slowing down when I realized that I was on the same street as my house and I would be somewhere safe in just a minute. With the primal urge to insure self-safety finally fulfilled, my mind finally let itself think, and I slowed down to a walk.

My first thought when my self control returned? "Holy Crap! I really am in shape! Hardly breathing hard at all!"

Once I got over that train of thought, my thoughts returned to the real issue.

For whatever reason, I had transformed into a Lucario. I had done what my father had so many years before when he was about my age. I shivered when I remembered my dad's stories about the infamous Team Styx. I had done a project one on Team Styx in school (I had gotten one amazing grade when I was able to get an interview from my Dad about their actions regarding him) and knew what people would do to get a hold of those who had the power of aura. While there had been no signs or Team Styx for many years, I knew my dad was always a little paranoid about the possible resurrection of the the people that tried to kill him all those years before.

I then stopped on the side of the road when a particularly unpleasant memory appeared. It was one where my dad had told me that, somehow, Team Styx was responsible for him transforming into a Lucario. Did me turning into one mean that Team Styx was once again shooting for their plans based on their fearsome aura bombs? Would I now become the center of much attention and cause for much worry?

It was when my thoughts strayed to worry that I began thinking about how my family would react. Let's see. My Dad would probably just be surprised for a little bit before getting excited and suggesting things I should try to do with aura. My mom? She would be freaking out and simultaneously slapping my Dad's head to try to get him to act serious. Lucy? She wouldn't care if I turned into a Pokemon, she's still getting her pranks in. Turning into a Pokemon just creates a whole new dimension of pranks in her eyes.

Then my mind went to how Andrea would react. I groaned when I realized that any ideas that we were still dating were probably just dreams at that point. I pushed those thoughts to the side at the time and focused on getting my keys out of my pocket as I had arrived at my house.

With a bit of difficulty, due to my pants being stretched slightly by my waist expanding a good bit and my spike getting in the way, I got my keys out of my pocket. It was also pretty difficult working with only three fingers to put the key into the lock.

When I finally managed it, I went through the door and only just took a few steps into the barely lit house before Lucy slammed into my chest, knocking me down roughly.

The way she jumped on my chest and held her paw against my throat now held no trace of her earlier playfulness.

"Who are you!", she growled at me in a threatening way. Her entire body was tensed and her tails were raised behind her. While I mostly understood her as a human, knowing Pokemon language to a certain extent, turning into a Pokemon had apparently come with a built in dictionary along with the body. (Unfortunately, it also came built in with a tail, which I wanted to stop crushing by falling on my butt cause it really hurt!)

When I thought about it, I hadn't even checked to see if I could speak like a human anymore. Well, time to try it out.

"Relax Lucy, it's Jacob. Remember? The one who tried to spike your food today, and failed. You tried to lick my hair in revenge but my mom stopped you."

I took extra care to keep my voice calm and not seem threatening. While I've been the target of a few of her ember attacks, I don't want to ever take the brunt of one of her more powerful fire attacks. Especially not at point blank in the face.

I also noticed that my voice appeared to be speaking in English, but that may have been my brain just translating it for me, so I didn't make a conclusion yet.

She got a confused look on her face before leaning in a little and sniffing me.

She then raised her head, took a look at my clothes, and began laughing hysterically.

"Hey! What they heck is so freaking funny?!", I asked indignantly.

She tried to form words, but gave up and continued to laugh. I angrily pushed her off of me and got up as she continued to writhe on the floor in helpless giggling hysterics.

I rolled my eyes at her and turned on some lights so it wouldn't be so dark. Though the dark really didn't bother me due to my new body having very good night vision. I just turned the lights on for when my parents got home, so they wouldn't be completely blind.

I made sure the blinds were shut before going to our living room and collapsing on our couch.

I stared up at the ceiling, not really thinking about anything. My mind was taking a little break and just let me stare aimlessly. I stayed that way for almost half an hour before I decided to get up and go get a shower. Why a shower? Because showers are relaxing, and I was in dire need of major relaxation.

I passed by Lucy on the way to the stairs and she burst out in a new round of helpless giggles at the sight of me. I held back the urge to kick at her as I went past and up the stairs to my bathroom.

I took a long shower. When I got out, I got a special towel that we had bought for when Luna would occasionally spend the night at our place. It was specially designed to help suck the moisture out of a Pokemon's fur and helped me get dry in a few minutes.

I put on a pair of shorts, for the sake of modesty, but didn't bother with a shirt. I didn't want to stab any more holes in my clothing. Heck, with how the fur felt like a shirt, I would probably be ditching the shorts soon as well.

I was heading back downstairs when I heard the doorbell ring. I gulped when I wondered who it could be. The Press? Team Styx? The WPO? MY MOM?

I calmed myself and went to the door. I opened it, prepared for just about everything from a full on retrieval squad to my mom (shiver), and was utterly shocked when none of my guesses were correct.

Standing before me, was a Lucario. To be specific, a female Lucario. To be even more specific, a very pissed off female Lucario.

She stood there for a moment, neither of us saying anything, before I noticed that she too was wearing clothes. A blue dress that was eerily familiar...

"Andrea!?", I said, shocked. How in the world did she also turn into a Pokemon?

She scowled even harder and said, "I can't speak like a human, so my parents thought I was a wild Pokemon that got into our house. How the heck can you still speak English!?"

I took a step back, afraid of her temper, and said, "I don't know! I don't even know how I turned into a Pokemon, let alone how you did."

She crossed her arms and seemed to calm down slightly. Though she still held an angry expression.

"Whatever. Since my parents think I'm a Pokemon, I have no place to live at the moment. Since you're probably the reason why I turned into one, you owe me a place to sleep, for tonight at least."

I blinked a few times before giving her a small grin and saying, "wow, we're living under the same roof already? I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

And now she had a death glare.

"Ya know. I may not know all of Lucario's moves, but I'm certain that they know aura sphere. I think you'll serve as a perfect first test dummy."

I forced the smile off of my face and opened the door a little wider.

"Okay, okay. No need to be blasting up the house because of a joke."

She huffed and walked in, stopping at the sight of Lucy, who was laying on the ground with her eyes closed, still giggling slightly.

"Why is your Ninetails laughing so much?"

I walked to stand next to Andrea and said, "cause she thinks that me following my Dad's footsteps is hilarious."

Lucy opened one of her eyes to look at me, caught sight of Andrea standing there, and began howling with laughter anew.

I rolled my eyes and waved for Andrea to follow me.

I led her to the kitchen where I leaned against the wall and waited to see what she would ask first.

"What did you mean, "following in your Dad's footsteps?"

I sighed and said, "you know the guy who turned into a Lucario all those years ago and back into a human?"

She nodded slowly.

"That's my Dad."

She blinked, opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Closed it. Then finally said, "you're joking, right?"

My deadpan stare told her I was serious.

She leaned against a wall and held her hand... paw, against her face.

"How the heck did I never notice?"

"Probably cause I never advertised it," I said, amused at her reaction.

She glared at me and I said, "whatever. I'm just going to wait till my Dad gets home and ask him what we should do. Cause remember, he did turn back human."

She nodded and straightened up.

"Fine. Now where's some clothes I can wear? These are not exactly suitable to be called clothes anymore."

I shrugged and said, "fur almost feels like clothes. I'm thinking of ditching these shorts anyways."

She gaped at me for a moment at my suggestion and said, "oh you would like that, wouldn't you?"

My brain processed what she was insinuating a few moment later and I sputtered, "No! That's not- No!"

I was glad there was fur on my face because I knew my face would be blushing if I was human.

She shook her head and said, "where's your shower at. I need to clean myself off." I then noticed that she had a few leaves stuck in her fur and dress and reasoned that she went through the woods to get to my place.

"Uh, upstairs second door on the right. I'll leave you some clothes outside the door for when you get done. The Pokemon towels are in the drawer to the left."

She nodded and walked away. I stood where I was, letting my head rest against the wall. This new turn of events was going to be interesting. Hopefully my Dad would get home and help fix whatever caused this.

I heard the soft footsteps of Lucy enter the kitchen.

"So. How was the first date?"

"Lucy."

"Yes?"

"Don't make me dye your tails so they resemble the rainbow, again."

"Alright. No need to be so hateful... you bang her yet?"

"LUCY!"

* * *

And there's the end of chapter two. Man, fate did not want me to post this chapter. First I started collage classes (despite still being in high school), then I got sick, and then I had to deal with all the regular stuff as well. But, I got it out. That's all that matters :).

Remember, reviews are food for the soul :). Thanks to the people who have already left one. And criticism is appreciated, I would like to know what would make this better.

Suggestions very welcome. A fellow member on this site, tomhur18, has been a great source of suggestions and ideas. Round of applause for him!

Any particular Pokemon you wish to see (up to Gen 4) either leave in a review or PM me and I'll see what I can do :).

Talkingbirdguy, out!


	3. Team Phoenix

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 3

Team Phoenix

Here's another chapter. This also happens to be the longest chapter so far in this story. I probably should have spent the time that I used to write this to do some homework for my two collage classes, but hey, at least I enjoyed writing this. :P. While I'm happy at those who left the reviews, I would ask that people tell me what they think. I can't read your minds, ya know!

Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, I would be getting paid for this! Alas, I am earning no money. Thus, I don't own Pokemon, just the characters and story that I create.

Enjoy :)

* * *

JACOB'S POV

Chapter 3

After leaving Lucy, who was rolling around on the ground in laughter yet again at her blush inducing question, I went up to my room and searched for clothes to give Andrea when she came out. I found some shorts with elastic in them, so I knew they would fit her, and I borrowed one of my mom's shirts that she never wore that I was sure would fit Andrea. By the time I gathered these two items, I heard the water stop and I quickly put the clothes outside the door and went back to my room.

I heard the bathroom door open and the sound of her grabbing the clothes.

A moment later, she opened the door again and said loudly, "you forgot a bra and panties!"

"Where do you expect me to get them? From my mom?"

There was silence before she answered back with, "good point," and the door closed again.

I sighed and went to the guest room, which was right past my room on the right when you came up from the stairs. I made sure that the room was usable and walked out at the same time that Andrea exited the bathroom.

She held up the towel that she used and asked, "where should I put this?"

"Just put it on the rack, you can use it again if you need to."

She took a moment to put the towel in its spot before following me back downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Since our supper was... interrupted, I really didn't get to eat anything. Have you ate?"

"I had something when I got home. Before I transformed."

I paused as I was getting out a frying pan and asked, "how exactly did your transformation feel?"

She described how she felt, the pains and the burning of the transformation, as I made myself some fried eggs. (Hey, eggs aren't exclusively a breakfast item, so don't judge.)

Her transformation apparently felt the same as mine. No deviations.

When I was finished making the eggs and started eating them, she was at the point when her parents got home.

"Well I was staring at my dress, or what was left of it, when I heard the door of my house open. I ran out of my room and tried to tell them that I had turned into a Lucario. Of course they can't understand Pokemon." Her eyes misted over with tears at that point and I stopped eating, it would have been rude to continue eating while she was so distressed.

"It was kinda dark, so they must've not noticed my dress. But my dad grabbed a bat and threatened me with it. So I ran. I didn't know who else would let me spend the night, so I came here."

She started to really cry then and I stood up and gave her a comforting hug, being careful of our chest spikes. She squeezed me tightly and I patted her on her back and let her cry into my shoulder.

We stayed like that for a good while and when she seemed to calm down slightly, I guided her to the couch and sat her down gently while still holding on to her. I kinda squished my tail against the side of the couch, but I didn't dare ask her to scoot over at that moment.

I held her like that for almost ten more minutes before she loosened her grip on me and I released her.

She sniffled a little and I passed her a box of tissues that were handy, thankfully.

She made a sound of thanks, or that's what I took it as, and blew her nose.

Much to my embarrassment, my stomach grumbled loudly and I had the distinct urge to punch my belly for ruining the moment.

Instead of getting angry, Andrea started laughing. It was brittle and not at her usual caliber or volume, but it was laughter. And that was something.

"Sorry," I apologized while dying a little inside from the rumbling that seemed to persist from my stomach.

She calmed down a little and said, "you go ahead and finish eating. I'm going to go to bed, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. The guest bedroom is the one on the right after you go past my room. If you need anything, just wake me up and ask for it."

She nodded with a small smile still lingering on her lips and walked to the stairs.

I sat there for a second more before returning to the kitchen. Before I started eating again, I noticed that my shoulder fur was soaked and dried it with a towel. I finished up eating and headed up to my room. Before I went in it, I listened carefully and heard no noises coming from Andrea's temporary room, so I assumed she had already went to sleep.

I felt strangely tired, even though it wasn't that late, and quickly got in bed. After making sure I wouldn't stab the bed with any of my new spikes while asleep, I turned off my light and let sleep claim victory.

* * *

JASON'S POV

I had woken up enough times in my life in strange places that it only took me a few seconds after regaining consciousness to gather my thoughts and come up with a plan.

I put part one of the hastily created plan into action by jumping up quickly from the ground I had been laying on. Parts two through five, though, were made moot when I immediately collapsed onto the ground.

My first thought upon falling, OWWWW!

The second was the realization that I was once again a Lucario. I rolled onto my back and knew that I was not dreaming. The pain assured me of that. I stared at my ha-paws, and clenched them.

Whoever had turned me into a Lucario had to be connected to Team Styx, somehow. At least, that's what I assumed at the time.

I took a moment to inspect my surroundings. I was in a blank room with only a bed and a toilet to decorate it. Frankly, it reminded me of the room that the WPO had shoved me in all those years before. Pure wall that was unblemished and without decoration and everything.

I felt more than heard a slight hum that seemed to come from all around me. It sounded eerily familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had heard it.

"Finally awake I see," a voice spoke from behind me and I twisted my body and limbs in such a way so I ended up on my feet facing the speaker.

I didn't recognize the face. It was a man with a pale grey business suit on. He had faintly silver hair that was neatly combed to one side. He looked to be around high twenties low thirties. He currently held a smirk on his face, one that I was hoping to blast off with an aura sphere sometime soon.

Heck, I didn't want to wait. I created one and blasted it at him without another thought.

I aimed at the center of his chest. He was in such a position so that any form of dodging that he tried would still have the aura sphere hit him, and hopefully bury him a few inches into the wall.

But before the aura sphere even left my hand to travel the short distance, I felt it shrink tremendously. When I launched it, it faded completely into the air before traveling more than a foot.

I was stuck in the position I had launched the attack, frozen in surprise. The man, on the other hand, laughed and said, "violent, aren't you."

I unfroze and growled at the man, getting into a threatening stance that made my intentions clear.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not if you wish to remain conscious."

Stopping myself at his words, I used my not so little skill with aura to speak straight into his mind.

"I don't know who you are, or what you did to stop my aura sphere, but if you don't-"

He started laughing again before I could finish my sentence.

"You don't get it, do you?", He said with a serious expression. "You're not able to do anything to me with your aura because this room absorbs your aura. The moment you move too close to me, the people watching this exchange will raise the amount of aura it absorbs from you and cause to you pass out."

"So you are taking my aura! Trying to revive Team Styx, are you!?"

He grimaced at my words and said, "we are not Team Styx. Let me make that perfectly clear. They were too ambitious in their plans and moved far too quickly and without thinking. We, on the other hand, will learn from Team Styx's mistakes."

I wasn't expecting them to not be Team Styx, but I really didn't matter. They were still some power hungry organization who was threatening me.

"So what do you call your little group?"

He grinned and a maniacal light came into his eyes that made the fur on the back of my neck stand on end.

"We are the ones who will rise triumphant from the ashes of this corrupt and evil world," he turns his body so a small patch faced me.

It was a picture of a bird that seemed to be completely consumed by flames, but unhurt. While some would mistake it for the legendary Pokemon, Moltres, most would see that it was a Phoenix. It was flying straight up with buildings completely destroyed and in ruins below it, while there was beautiful landscapes sitting on top of clouds, where the Phoenix flew.

"We are Team Phoenix! You are the thing that will create the ashes from which we shall rise from!" He had his arms in the air, slightly spread as though he was speaking to a crowd that worshipped him and not a single person who was not in any way convinced by his spiel.

"You're nuts," I said in a deadpan tone, utterly destroying the fanatical theme he had set in the room.

He paused with a blank face, that morphed into rage. He lowered his left arm while raising his right hand into the air and snapping his fingers once.

A moment later, I felt the same feeling I had felt when Team Styx had tried to suck the aura out of me with that machine that exploded. It caused me to collapse, but I did not pass out.

The man looked at me with an expression of surprise and I saw him put his hand to his ear for a moment before scowling.

"What happened to all of your aura? We were told you had almost three times the amount you're currently holding all those years ago."

I couldn't have responded, even if I wanted to. But the words confused me. It felt as though I had less aura than when I had transformed before. I knew it wasn't the machine. The aura simply was not inside me. Had I lost some over the years? I couldn't really tell due to humans not having the same instinctual bond with aura as Lucario.

The man, who was still scowling, waved his hand and the rate that my aura was being taken dropped to such a level that I was able to push myself up on shaky feet.

"While this will slow us down a lot, it matters not. We can wait. You will regenerate aura even as we drain it away. As long as we do not take more than you produce, and keep you alive, you are a limitless battery."

"Fuck you," I sent to him after summoning enough energy. I loathed the man in front of me, and I didn't even know the bastards name!

"Hmmm. Rude. I think I'll leave you to enjoy a little more of our hospitality."

He turned around and walked through the wall, just like the room at the WPO, and a minute later, I felt the thing absorbing my aura jump a few notches. Not enough to feel numb or collapse, but it was plenty enough to make it feel as though the planet's gravity had tripled.

I shuffled over to the bed and barely managed to fall into it before it rendered me incapable of moving around. I fell asleep to the draining feeling, not sure what I would do when I woke back up.

* * *

JACOB'S POV

The sound of my alarm forced my eyes open and I moved to hit the snooze button for ten more blessed minutes of sleep.

Only the words, "-don't know who the male was, but several bystanders say that he appeared to be on a date before transforming."

My stomach sank when I realized that they were talking about me. I sat up and turned it up slightly.

"No one was able to get a picture or video of the supposed guy who transformed into a Lucario. We've tried to get in contact with Jason Simmons, the only other person who has turned into a Pokemon who currently lives in the same city as the guy who transformed. Unfortunately, we've not been able to establish contact with him."

They continued to speak a little more, but I tuned it out before hitting the off button.

I heard the sounds of a pan being set on the stove downstairs and knew my mom was preparing breakfast. I glanced at the clock and it read 7:45. The usual time my mom would get up on weekends.

My heart sank when I realized that my mom had yet to learn of my current condition. I got out of bed and stepped out of my room. I saw that the guest bedrooms door was still closed and assumed Andrea had not woke up yet. That was partly a blessing. My mom would not be pleased to hear the news of her son turning into a Pokemon secondhand.

I headed downstairs, thinking frantically on how I was going to explain my current situation. Eventually, I just decided on the, "quick and painful", method. So it would be over with quickly.

When I got to the bottom, I got close to the kitchen door and said, "morning, mom."

"Morning Jacob. How many pancakes you want?"

I was torn. Pancakes was my favorite breakfast food and I was pretty sure giving her this news would ruin my chances of getting the heavenly food. On the other hand, if I waited until later to tell her, she might skin me alive. I held back a sigh as I realized that it was a no-win situation either way.

"Umm. I kinda have to tell you something."

The sounds from the kitchen went completely silent and she said, "yes?"

"Well. It's kind of awkward. I'm not sure how to say it."

"What did you do? Did you think before you did it?"

Wait, what? What was she talking about? Did she think something happened last night? I blushed a little when I considered the possibilities that she may have been mentioning.

"Uh, not sure what you're talking about, so I'll just show you."

I stepped forward into the doorway and my mom's eyes widened in surprise, (and a little in relief?).

"Jacob?"

I nodded silently.

She blinked a few times before saying, "we'll wait until your dad gets home before discussing this." Then she turned around and began preparing breakfast.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I was flabbergasted, confused, and a whole lot more synonyms of shocked, at her nonchalant manner.

"So... you're not freaked out by this?", I asked while leaning against the wall and crossing my arms.

"A little. But not as much as I probably should be. And get off that wall."

I rolled my eyes and got off the wall, per her instructions. (Seriously, it was like she expected that me leaning against the wall to leave a huge mess or something.)

"Oh. And Andrea turned into a Lucario as well," I said and she dropped the pan onto the floor. Thankfully, it was devoid of food.

In the silence that followed, I heard two things. One was the sound of the bed squeaking slightly in the guest bedroom upstairs. The other was the sound of a pen dropping.

"Lucy. Really?", I gave the Pokemon a glare and she smiled and drug away the pen she had probably been holding in her mouth all morning, just for that moment. She was loving like that.

The sound broke my mom out of her frozen state of shock and she got the pan.

I was alerted to Andreas presence only a few moments before she walked up from behind me and in view of my mom.

She dropped the pan again and I flinched at the sound hurting my sensitive ears. Again.

Andrea gave a small wave and said, "good morning, Mrs Simmons."

My mom blinked and said, "umm. Honey. I can't speak the Pokemon language."

"She said, "good morning," I translated and my mom nodded while Andrea facepalmed.

"Morning dear. How many pancakes would you like?"

Andrea didn't answer for a moment, due to her shock at my mom's nonchalant attitude, but soon said, "two please," while holding up two of her fingers to give a non-verbal answer.

"I'll take three, please," I said and she nodded before turning around and staring to prepare them.

I backed out of the kitchen and waved for Andrea to follow me to the living room. I saw she was wearing some new clothes (a red hoodie with all the types shown in a circle and some elastic sweatpants) and I remembered that my mom kept some spare clothes in the dresser in the guest bedroom.

We sat awkwardly for a minute, and to break the tension, I said, "so. How are you doing?"

She gave me a deadpan look and I shrugged.

She rolled her eyes and responded with, "let's see. My boyfriend turned me into a Lucario. My parents kicked me out of their house. And I can't speak like a human. Overall, not so good. When is your dad going to help us? Is he awake yet?"

I frowned when I realized that my dad was not up and about yet.

"Just a moment," I said before getting up and heading back to the kitchen.

"Hey mom, is dad awake yet?"

She paused, as though she was thinking, then said, "I don't think he came back home last night. He's probably still at the Sanctuary, taking care of whatever problem there was last night."

While it was a bit unusual that he wasn't home yet, it wasn't unheard of. He sometimes had to stay overnight to help take care of injured Pokemon or other problems. I once was with him when we had found a very injured Phanpy. We had brought the Pokemon to a cave and nursed it back to health. It took almost three days before we deemed the Phanpy healthy enough to take care of itself and went back home. It was from that experience that I put a lot of my dad's teachings about medical uses in nature to good use.

"Okay. Thanks." She nodded and went back to cooking.

As I went back to the living room, the doorbell rang and I made a pained face when I remembered that my friend was supposed to be coming over early today so we could hang out.

I went to the front door and opened it slightly while saying, "hey Alex. Sorry but today is kind of a bad day to hang out."

"But have you heard the news! Someone's turned into a Pokemon! Has your dad heard yet?"

Alex was one of the few friends I had told about my dad. He was cool about it most of the time. This was the first time he had ever brought it up with such excitement.

"Umm. That's kind of the reason this is not a good day." I couldn't outright lie to him, he was one of my best friends.

"Whyyyy?", his voice developed a whining tone that made me roll my eyes.

"Just cause- oh screw it. You're gonna find out sooner or later."

As quickly as I was able, I opened the door and snatched Alex in by his shirt before closing the door. Anyone watching would have probably seen a blue blur snatching the guy inside the house and not much else.

He caught his balance after I closed the door and turned towards me with an annoyed look.

His expression soon changed to shock and before he could utter a word, I said, "how many pancakes do you want?"

I did this for two reasons. Partly because Alex had been over here so many times before that we were used to feeding him breakfast. And partly to interrupt his train of thought before his floodgates of questions could open.

"Three. And-"

"Mom," I interrupted him loudly, "Alex is here! Three more pancakes please!"

"Okay!", she answered back.

I then turned back to Alex and said quickly, "first off, ask one question at a time. Second. If you start to become annoying, I'm going to not talk. Okay?"

He nodded and said, "so how did it happen?"

I shrugged and headed to the living room.

"No clue."

As I walked into the living room, I saw Andrea go wide eyed and she jumped over the couch while yelling, "Jacob! Tell him to go away!"

"What was that?", Alex asked when he heard Andrea cry out in Pokemon tongue.

I sighed and said (to Andrea), "people are going to find out anyways. Why not go ahead and tell them?"

"Cause I don't want people to see me as a Pokemon!"

"C'mon. You'll be human again soon, so why not enjoy yourself for however long it lasts?" At least, I hoped we would be human again soon. But it wouldn't have helped to show uncertainty at a time like that.

She was silent for a moment before saying, "fine. I'm getting up." She didn't sound happy about it, evidence of this appeared when she stood up and crosses her arms with a very distinctive, "laugh, and I will castrate you", look in her eyes.

"Why is that Lucario wearing clothes?"

Andrea's eyes opened wide in anger at Alex's question and let forth a string of words that made me wish that I couldn't understand Pokemon tongue.

Once she got finished, Alex turned to me and said, "I feel as though I was just scolded very harshly. Was I?"

"Basically, yes," I answered and quickly added, "why don't we all just sit down and talk like sane people?" I mostly directed the question to Andrea, who glared in response before sitting down.

"To answer your earlier question, my dad is still at work. He'll probably be in later in the morning or sometime pretty soon."

She got a pained look, but nodded.

"Fine. But can't you call him and explain the situation so he can come here sooner?"

"His phone doesn't work in some areas where he works."

She got a curious look and opened her mouth to talk, but then my mom's voice rang out from the kitchen saying, "food's ready!"

I had the polite nature to let Andrea grab her pancakes first. Alex, on the other hand, had no such restraint, and soon began gorging himself on the fluffy delights of my mother's cooking.

Once Andrea had grabbed her pancakes, I soon followed Alex's example.

Ten minutes later, and four pancakes down (I had gotten an extra one), I was setting my fork down and patted my furry belly with a content sigh.

Across the table, Alex was mirroring me, minus the fur and other Lucario stuff obviously.

I noticed that Andrea had hardly touched her pancakes and was instead swapping her eyes back and forth between my empty plate and Alex's.

"What's wrong?", I asked her and she just shook her head.

"I've never seen anyone eat with such..."

"Enthusiasm," my mom suggested. Somehow guessing what her expression meant, even if she didn't understand the words she spoke.

"Yeah, let's go with that," she said and began eating at a very slow pace. Or maybe we had eaten fast?

I shrugged and put my plate into the dishwasher. Alex did the same and I said, "we're going downstairs," before leaving the kitchen with Alex (literally) on my tail.

We headed downstairs into our basement, which my dad had transformed into a man-cave a few years back.

When we got down there, I got myself situated on the couch (sitting in such a way to avoid smashing my tail) while Alex got in his usual spot in a chair.

"Begin asking," I said and he immediately began talking.

"How did it happen?"

"No clue."

"How does it feel to be a Pokemon?"

I had to think a moment before answering with, "everything feels a little, "enhanced", I guess. I can see better. Smell better. Hear sharper. I even taste things in a whole new spectrum! Though touch seems to be the same."

"Okay. Can you make aura spheres?"

I thought for a moment before shrugging.

"Haven't tried yet. I can try later. Next."

"Are you going to ditch the clothes?" While others would consider this an odd or uncomfortable question, I knew that Alex was simply asking the question because most Pokemon went without clothes. I had only seen Pokemon wear clothes during contests and never in everyday life.

I paused for a moment, then nodded, "probably, yeah."

He gave a mischievous grin and asked in a sly tone, "and is Andrea going to ditch her clothes?"

Even while I felt the unseen blush take hold, due to the mental image that sprung forth, (seriously, why was I blushing at an unclothed female Lucario? I had seen Luna without clothes my entire life), I still said, "bro, she's my girl! Don't be talking about her like that!"

"Being, "your girl", can be debated right now," Andrea said as she walked down the stairs and into view.

Behind her, came Lucy.

I narrowed my eyes at Lucy and said, "whatever happened to, "I'm never going to come back down to that petty excuse for a man-cave ever again"?"

She got herself comfortable on the special bean bag that we had bought for her awhile back, and said, "what? And miss this?"

"There is nothing to miss! Now you better go before I use you for dart practice."

She snorted at the threat and made a pointed look at a small hole on the wall opposite of the dart board.

"That was an accident and you know it!"

Andrea connected the dots and laughed while asking, "how in the world did you manage to miss the board that badly?"

"To this day, I'm still not sure," I muttered and that caused Andrea to laugh even harder.

Lucy was laughing even as she walked back upstairs and I said, "good riddance."

Alex let out a snort at that and a glare from me made him grin.

"Okay! I'm not a very good shot with darts! Can we accept it and get over it?"

Andrea sobered up quickly and her face went serious.

"Right. So. What do you do for fun around here? Aside from darts, of course?"

She snickered at me and I pointedly ignored her.

"Well, we are Pokemon. Why don't we try to use some moves and see how they work out?"

"Do you have some sort of indoor gym or something?"

"No, we have a back yard and a property with some woods that no one lives on."

"But we might be SEEN!"

I shrugged and said, "we might. But if we have Alex with us, he can just say he's our trainer. My dad keeps a couple pokeballs around in case he ever comes across an injured Pokemon. He can just attach them to his belt or something in plain view. No one has to know that we are human."

She thought about it for a little while, and then nodded.

"Fine. Let's do that."

I got Alex to grab two pokeballs out of the first aid kit. I would've got them myself, but I wasn't sure if it would try to capture me like a regular Pokemon if I touched it and didn't want to risk it.

I leaned into the living room, where my mom was reading a book, and said, "we're going outside to see if me and Andrea can use Pokemon moves."

"Okay. Don't get hurt."

"Yes ma'am."

I led Andrea and Alex a good ways into the wooded property that, to my knowledge, had never had any sort of house or structure of any kind on it. Someone technically owned it, but they had yet to do anything with the property, so I sometimes came out there with friends to hang out.

When we reached an area that was clear of trees, I turned around to them and said, "alright. I know plenty of moves that Lucario can use. But how about we try aura sphere first?"

Andrea shrugged while Alex nodded enthusiastically.

"So how do we do it? Just think about it?", Andrea asked me and I shook my head.

"No. What you do is that you have to focus on making your aura into a spherical form by locating and tapping into your bodies natural reserve. At least, that's how it was explained to me."

Andrea gave me an odd look and said, "and who told you that? Your dad?"

"Err, yeah. He told me," I lied. Truth was, Luna was the one who had told me how she did it. Once we established that I had no control or talent with aura, the talk of it became slightly taboo in our household. But I couldn't tell Andrea that. I would have to tell her about how I had more Pokemon friends than human ones and that I could understand some Pokemon language.

She believed me, and nodded.

"I'll try first," I said and turned towards a clump of trees on the edge of the clearing.

I felt a hint of trepidation as I raised my paw to about chest height with my palm facing the sky. I had never felt even a hint of aura run through my system of its own accord or by my command. A multitude of "what-ifs" ran through my mind.

What if I still couldn't use aura? What if I made a fool of myself?

Before the what-ifs could take me over, I concentrated on the instructions I had said only a few seconds earlier. I felt around in my mind, and with only a little poking around, I found something I had never noticed before.

The best thing I could compare the feeling to would be a lake. I felt its presence, just sitting there, ready to be used.

I concentrated and made a little of the "water" come out of the lake and into the palm of my paw.

Moments later, a blue sphere appeared in my paw and I nearly jumped for joy at the elation that sprung forth. I didn't do so for for two reasons. One, I might lose control and it could explode in my paw. Two, I would look like an idiot.

Instead, I pulled my hand back and threw the aura sphere like a ball in the direction of the trees. While most Lucario could fire the aura spheres without needing to do a throwing motion, I had heard that you needed to practice using aura to give it thrust before doing so.

The aura sphere hit a tree and created a hole big enough to cause the tree to fall over. It didn't matter that it toppled the wrong tree, they didn't know that.

It was then that I jumped for joy and celebrated a little before calming down and turning back to them with a cool-as-a-cucumber expression.

"Your turn."

She smirked at me and we swapped places.

She imitated my posture and we waited for that blue sphere to appear. And waited. And waited.

Finally, she said, "the only thing that is happening is me standing here, looking like an idiot."

Alex looked at me and I said, "She said that she's having trouble."

He nodded and stepped forward while reaching for her paw.

"His hand was a little higher- Oww!" He accidentally scratched the back of his hand on her spike when he was retracting it after fixing her position.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to do that!", she cried out.

He waved his hand and said, "it's alright," understanding her intent, even if he couldn't understand her words.

I looked at the cut and it wasn't too bad. Hardly any bleeding. Heck, it looked like it was already clotting.

"It doesn't look bad-" I stopped abruptly when I noticed something strange. I felt waves of what I assumed was aura rolling off of Alex.

"What? What's up?", He asked, taking a look at the cut to see if anything was wrong with it.

"Nothing-" my words were cut off yet again as I saw something on his head that should not have been there.

They were blue. They extended like 7 or 8 inches above his head. And they were not a part of human anatomy.

"Umm. Alex?"

"Yes?"

"I think I figured out how I accidentally turned Andrea into a Lucario."

"Oh, really," he was so excited he didn't even notice when his ears lifted a little.

"Yeah. I accidentally scratched her while transforming. It appears the same thing has happened to you, but on a smaller scale."

He looked at his hands, and looked back up to me with a questioning look.

Instead of speaking, I just pointed at my own ears. He made the connection, felt his new ears, then started running around in a circle screaming, "I don't want to be a Lucario!"

Andrea snickered at the sight and I couldn't hold back a grin as he attempted to pull the ears off and kept saying, "ow. Ow. Ow! Why isn't this working!?"

* * *

And another chapter ends. Whoop whoop! Remember leave a review. I like to know what you think, what needs improvement, and what you would like to see! So put it in a review or send me a PM, or heck, do both. And to guest reviewers, while I would love to answer your questions, I can't. There is no one to send the PM to, so the question will remain unanswered and will drive me (and possibly others) mad. So now that that is over, REVIEW!


	4. A little scratch

The return of the Cursed Gift chap 4

Here's yet another chapter. (My longest, I might add). To those who have left a review, thanks a million. And to those who have yet to do so, please do. Also, I have a new poll up on my profile. Please check it out. Some more details are at the bottom of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Pokemon. This is for purely entertainment purposes. I only lay claim to the characters I create and the storyline.

Enjoy :).

Chapter 4

A little scratch

* * *

JACOB'S POV

I eventually got Alex to calm down by walking up to him, grabbing his shoulder in one paw, and slapping him across the face with the other until he calmed down (being careful not to stab him with my spike). I never thought that would be so useful.

He blocked my next slap and said, "okay, you can stop now."

I let go and said, "aww, but it was just getting fun," with a grin. He just stuck his tongue out at me and Andrea went from chuckling to full out laughing at the sight.

"You two are hilarious," she let out in between laughs, "seriously! Start a comedian act!" She couldn't say more due to her laughter forcing her on the ground in a giggling fit.

Alex opened his mouth, probably intent on responding with a stinging retort, but he stopped with an odd expression on his face.

"Wait, did she just tell us that we should start a comedian act?", Alex asks me.

I nodded and then groaned when I realized what him understanding her meant.

Alex reached the same conclusion that I did and started shaking me while asking frantically, "am I speaking Pokemon, or English!?"

I shook him off and said, "I don't know! They sound the same to me!"

He then turned to Andrea, who had sobered up and was standing back up, and said, "well? What am I saying?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure either. I can also understand Pokemon now. So I'm not sure what you are speaking in. Maybe we should go and ask Jacob's mom?"

Alex nodded eagerly and started sprinting back. Before he got more than two steps, I grabbed the back of his shirt and stopped him in his tracks.

"What's the hold up? I want to know if I need to worry or not," Alex said, stopping and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well you might want to cover those," I pointed at his new ears, which twitched slightly at the sudden attention, "because while people will assume we are just Lucario. They will not know what to make of a human with Lucario-like qualities."

"Well what do you expect me to cover them with?"

I paused, noticing his clothings lack of hood and he had no hat.

"Good point. Let's just try to avoid people and get back to the house quickly." Alex nodded and began walking at a fast pace that had Andrea and me near jogging to keep up.

We arrived back at the house, seeing no one else on the way there aside from a few wild Pokemon. I went inside through the back door and announced myself with, "hey Mom!"

"Hey honey! I'm in the living room."

I went to the living room with the other two on my tail (yes, still literally), and Alex immediately said upon entering, "am I speaking English?"

She looked at Alex with a confused stare for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, you are. Why wouldn't you be?"

Alex sighed in relief and collapsed on the couch. This action caused his ears to become very obvious to my mom.

"Oh. That's why." She sighed and said, "Jacob. Please stop transforming your friends into Pokemon. Or part Pokemon."

I sputtered for a moment before saying, "hey! It wasn't my fault this time! It was Andrea who did it this time!"

"Well thanks for throwing me under the bus," she said in a miffed tone and crossed her arms.

My mom blinked and said, "Andrea. You just spoke English. I could understand you just then."

Andrea's eyes widened and she uncrossed her arms.

"You can understand me? Seriously?"

My mom nodded and I had a sudden realization.

"Guys, and mom, I think I just figured out how I turned Andrea into a Lucario and how Andrea gave Alex Lucario ears."

This announcement had all their eyes on me and I sat down on the chair that the couch and last chair (which Alex was in) faced. Andrea sat on the other end of the couch from my mom and waited for my explanation.

"I think, now that I look back on it, that I had a lot of aura running through my body as I was transforming. Since it was running rampant though my body with no control on my part, I guess some of it leaked out through my spike when I accidentally scratched Andrea. The scratch must have activated her own transformation. Since that little bit of aura was used instead to transform Andrea, I got to keep my vocal cords. That's how I was able to speak English even though Andrea could not."

Andrea took over and said in an excited tone, "and when Alex cut himself on my hand spike, some of the aura in my system must have leaked out! Letting my vocal cords return to normal!"

I clapped my paws together and said, "exactly! And that little bit of aura must have caused Alex to start his own transformation. But since Andrea did not have a ton of aura running through her body, but only a little that she couldn't stop from leaking out, Alex's transformation did not go the full way. His stopped at the ears."

When I fell silent, my mom piped up with, "while that sounds like a pretty reasonable explanation, where did the aura that caused you to transform come from?"

I shrugged. "I'm really not sure. I guess we'll have to ask Dad what he thinks when he gets home."

The doorbell rang at that moment, interrupting further conversation.

My mom, knowing that none of us would want to get the door in our current states, got up and headed to answer the door.

She opened the door and we heard her say, "yes?"

I woman answered with, "hello ma'am. This is the house of Jason Simmons, correct?"

I could feel my mom holding back the urge to roll her eyes.

"Yes. He lives here. Unfortunately he has not come home yet."

"Oh. Well do you know when he will be home?"

"No. I'm not sure. Sorry."

"Well have you heard about the guy who turned into the Lucario last night? We want to ask Mr Simmons a few questions about that."

I had an idea at that moment. I knew that the media was going to catch me eventually and it was going to be an extreme hassle. But what if I could control the situation? What if I had the literal power to slam the door in the face of their questions? I thought it out for a few seconds and decided to do it.

I stood up and made a gesture with my paw for Andrea and Alex to stay sitting. They gave me confused looks, but remained where they were.

I walked to the front door and tapped my mom on the shoulder, who was in the process of closing the door, and whispered, "I think I have an idea on how to solve the problem of irritating reporters. Just let me do it, please?"

She hesitated, but knowing that I would not jump recklessly into a plan I had not thought out, she nodded and stepped out of my way.

I opened the door a little and called out to the woman who was halfway to her news van which was parked on the side of the road, "I hear you've been looking for me!"

The woman turned around with a confused expression, that quickly changed to an excited face as she walked back to the door quickly.

"Mr Simmons? Is that you?" She asked while waving her hand at the news van as though she was signaling someone.

"Actually, that's my Dad you're thinking of. I'm his son, Jacob."

She seemed surprised for a moment, but her face changed to a professional mask that I immediately dubbed as her, "reporter", mask.

"Do you mind if me and my associate ask you a few questions?" The mentioned associate was a man who got out of the news van with a large camera over his shoulder.

I closed the door a little and said with a frown, "I'll be happy to answer a few of your questions. But I must ask for you to keep the camera in the vehicle."

Thankfully, she made a few other hand signals to the man, and he returned to the vehicle with the camera. After being sure that he wasn't watching with the camera outside a window or something, I opened the door again.

She took this as a sign to begin and asked, "do you know how you changed into a Pokemon? And do you have any plans on telling the world how you achieved this strange accomplishment?"

I knew the first question was going to be asked, and answered with, "I do not have any idea what caused me to transform into a Lucario. And that kind of answers the second question, I think."

She wrote some words down on a small notebook she had conjured out of her pocket and continued asking questions.

"Why did you run away when you transformed?"

I took a moment to think before answering.

"I was afraid," she looked on with expectant eyes, so I elaborated.

"My mind was freaking out. I just felt like I needed to get somewhere safe. So I ran home as fast as I was able."

She nodded, wrote something else down, and asked, "reports said that you were with a young woman at the time of the transformation. Were you on a date?"

If she could have seen my cheeks, she would have seen them flush. My eyes widening, unfortunately, gave me away, and she smiled in triumph.

"So who is the special lady? Has she also transformed? And do you plan on finding a way to make things work out if you are unable-"

I held up a hand, stopping her words and said, "ma'am. Your questions are getting a bit personal."

She immediately apologized, "so sorry. I'll back off a little. Is that okay?"

I nodded, starting to feel as though I might regret this course of action.

"Have you spoke with any other reporters yet?"

"No. You are the first." She seemed to get even more excited at my answer.

"So no one else has asked questions from you?"

I chuckled and said, "only my mom. She certainly had a lot of questions."

The woman laughed, but I could tell it was fake.

"And how exactly are you speaking English? I distinctly remember Mr Simmons not being able to speak to anyone else without a special device that communicated his thoughts."

"I have an idea of how, but I can't say until I get some more information." I knew I couldn't tell her because doing so would reveal Andrea and Alex in the process.

"Well can you at least give me something? The readers would certainly appreciate it."

I shook my head and began to tell her that nothing would change my mind, but then I noticed another news van pull up on the side of the road.

I frowned and said, "your associate didn't call one of your friends did he?"

She frowned and shook her head. "No. He wouldn't. I told him beforehand to not do so. They must've got your address as well."

I saw the people in the front of the van begin pointing at me and talking excitedly. One of them got out a phone and began talking to someone with a lot of glancing at me involved.

I sighed and said to the woman, "I'm sorry, but if it starts to get too much, I'm going to ask you and the other reporters to leave."

She nodded, feigning understanding and asked, "okay, but can you continue to answer questions?"

"I'll continue to answer questions for a little longer. But let's wait for the others. I don't want to have to repeat myself. I just hope they aren't calling more."

She gave me a pitying look that I could tell was real this time, and said, "sorry. But they probably are."

I sighed and awaited for the reporter, a man this time, to hop out of the vehicle and walk quickly towards us. He was a rather portly man, and when he got closer, I said loud enough for him to hear, "I have to ask for you to please leave your camera in the van."

His smile faltered and he said, "nonsense. The camera would love to see you. You wouldn't deny all those curious people a glimpse of your incredible repeat?"

I scowled at the man and said, "you probably are confusing me for my father. I'm Jason Simmons son, Jacob. And no, I do not want that camera pointed at me. If you begin rolling, I will have to ask you to leave and only speak to this pleasant woman here."

I could tell the woman wanted the guy to push the camera issue and get kicked away. But alas, he waved for the guy holding the camera to return to the van.

He then got out a recorder and held it up to his lips and said, "reporter John Pitts at the Simmons household where I have come in touch with the son of the legendary once Lucario, Jason Simmons. Jacob here has agreed to answer a few questions."

I started to get mad. I had done no such thing! But before I could say anything, he shoved it in my face and said loudly, "what did you do to turn yourself into a Lucario? Can you share these secrets with the world? Or is this an incredible hoax to make the Simmons name famous once more?"

I finally said, "first off, get that recorder out of my face before I smash it. Second, I have no clue how I transformed. And if you think that this is-"

"So you have no evidence to back your story of turning into a Pokemon?"

He interrupted me and I said in a cold voice, "you are no longer welcome on this property. Leave now, or I will call the police."

He faltered and tried to push more, "but sir-"

"Leave," I said in the same cold tone.

He paused, stopped recording, and walked back to his vehicle while muttering under his breath.

Even as he walked back to his vehicle, two more vans and one regular vehicle pulled up on the side of the road outside my house and people jumped out with cameras already pointed at me and reporters talking in microphones.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to cut this short," I said to the woman before shutting the door quickly and locking it.

I then went to all the blinds in the house and closed them, preventing anyone from looking in the windows and seeing inside.

My mom peeked out of the blinds and groaned.

"My idea did not work," I admitted to her, "sorry Mom."

"It's okay. We knew this would happen eventually. I just hope they go away soon."

The doorbell began to ring and I looked out of the blinds to see a small crowd of people outside. Most were armed with cameras, notepads, and fake smiles. Is it a little weird that I would have preferred an angry mob armed with pokeballs and with elite trainers at the ready than what I had to deal with?

I sat in the living room with a loud sigh and said, "sorry. My idea didn't work."

"You didn't tell them about us, did you?", Andrea asked and I shook my head, much to her relief.

My mom joined us in the living room and said, "maybe they will leave if we ignore them?"

I had a better idea. And said, "I'm going to speed this up a bit."

"Jacob! Don't Do anything you'll regret later!", she said loudly as I walked up the stairs.

I went to a room that faced the road, and was consequently a little to the left of the front door. I saw that the road was clogged with vehicles now, most had news station logos on their sides. The occupants of said vehicles were currently huddled together, facing our front door.

I opened the window, leaned out, and yelled to the mass below, "I have to ask all of you to get off this property before I call the police!" I decided to start with politely asking them to leave. This scared off some, but a good ten people were not deterred and began shouting questions.

I ignored them and said, "if you do not leave, you will be trespassing and I will force you off this property!" To accentuate my words, I created an aura sphere in my paw.

"You have ten seconds to leave!"

One guy said, "but-"

"Nine!" The man that shouted, but, ran.

"Eight!" Half of them bolted. By three, my yard was devoid of people and the road was clear again.

I sighed, and released the concentration I was using to hold the aura sphere together. It dissipated, thankfully. I was worried it would accidentally explode or something.

I went back downstairs and said, "they're gone."

I sat back down in the chair I had been in before and winced as I crushed my tail slightly. After changing position, I asked my mom, "have you heard anything from Dad yet?"

She shook her head.

"Not a word. I'm starting to get worried. Why don't you go and check up on him? You can ask Luna and Narri if they've seen him."

"Who are they?", asked Andrea. Her, along with 99% of all my other friends, did not know about how my dad worked at the sanctuary.

"Family friends," I said, not necessarily lying.

"Yeah sure. You want to come, Andrea?"

She shook her head. "Thanks, but no. I'm going to go to one of my friends houses and use her phone to get in touch with my parents. I'll just tell them that I'm consoling Savannah after a bad break up or something." Me, Alex, and Andrea rolled our eyes. We all knew that Savannah, a friend from school, was overly dramatic when it came to break ups.

"Okay. But why don't you tell them the truth? Don't you think they might be worried for you?", I asked, voicing my concern of later parental fury at not being informed of her transformation sooner.

She shook her head, and said, "no. I think it would be best to just hurry up and turn back into a human. Then I'll tell them."

"But how do you make sure they believe you? If I told my parents I turned into a Lucario, they'd want some pretty concrete proof."

Andrea looked down for a moment before perking back up and saying, "let's have Ms Simmons take a picture of us together! That way, it'll be proof that this really happened."

We all liked the idea, so we waited for my mom to grab her camera and stood close together as she pointed it at us.

"Okay. Three, two, one-"

On one, I felt a extreme sting in my tail that caused me to yelp loudly and reach backwards at the same moment she took the picture.

I fell on my face while holding my abused tail and moaning at the twin spikes of pain from my appendage(?) and my now aching face.

"Lucy! That wasn't very nice!" My mom said, trying to be stern, but failing miserably as she was also holding back a smile.

I rolled on my side (avoiding rolling on my back as that would put pressure on my poor poor tail) and said, "what the heck, Lucy?! Don't I get just a little relief from your pranks because I turned into a Pokemon?"

Lucy snorted and shook her head. "Not a chance. And anyways, you've done it once-"

"What the heck do you mean, "I've done it once"?"

Lucy clamped her mouth shut, and I looked at my mom suspiciously.

"Mom. I haven't turned into a Pokemon before, have I?"

Her hesitation answered it for me.

"What the heck! When did it happen!?" The pain forgotten, for the moment, I shot to my feet, waiting for her answer.

She got a pained look and said, "well. You remember when you pranked Lucy by dying her tails different colors?"

I nodded.

"Well... she kinda turned you into a Skitty while you were asleep."

My eyes widened and I screamed, "THAT WASN'T A DREAM!?" A vague memory, half forgotten, rose up in my mind. I remembered how low I was to the bed, even as I was (for whatever reason) on all fours. I felt a strange feeling from behind me, and even as I turned, I felt the strange feeling move as well. I started chasing my own tail in an effort to discover what that strange feeling that hung behind me was. The door opened to reveal my mom, who gasped and closed the door. I was too occupied by trying to catch that nefarious, unreachable feeling, that I didn't notice the yelling in the hallway and when the Ninetails walked into the room.

(I did not realize it, but Alex nudged Andrea and asked, "can Ninetails really do that?" She just shrugged in response, guessing the answer was yes due to my horrified expression.)

The rest of the memory was a blur, and Lucy said, "you were so adorable," which she laced with high pitched sweetness that made me shiver at the memory. While the memory wasn't exactly unpleasant, no man should be forced to be a small pink Pokemon unless said male has committed the most heinous of crimes against the most pure of beings.

"I made Lucy turn you back and agree to not speak of it ever again. Though I said if you dyed her tails again, she could turn you into a Vulpix for a day."

I mentally thanked Arceus that I had made that a one time prank and had never repeated it.

After a minute of silence, (Andrea, Alex, and Lucy were grinning while I stared at the floor in mild horror), I said, "well. How did the picture turn out?"

My mom took a moment to look at the picture, that Lucy had ruined, and burst out laughing.

I stepped forward and grimaced when I saw myself. I had a ridiculous open-mouthed expression of surprise on my face. That, coupled with the fact I had jumped forward at the same time I had reached both arms back to my injured tail made the picture one that was highly embarrassing (but hilarious when I looked back on it later).

Alex and Andrea came up behind me and looked at the screen. Then promptly fell to the floor, overcome with their laughter while I glared at them and Lucy, promising lethal retribution to the latter.

She yawned at my death glare and I gave it up.

After they ran out of breath for laughing, they stood back up and Alex said (still grinning slightly), "C'mon. I'll give you a ride to Savannah's house. I can explain the situation to her before you reveal yourself."

Andrea nodded, letting the grin fall away as we returned to the topic at hand.

Just as they were heading to the door, I said, "wait!"

They stopped and I said, "you might want to borrow a hoodie, Alex. You know, to hide your ears."

Alex nodded with an embarrassed expression.

"Right. Thanks." He accepted a hoodie that was hanging on a hook nearby and put it on. As expected, the hood did an excellent job at holding his ears down so they might be mistaken for random folds in the material or something. Andrea's own hoodie was big enough to hide her obvious Lucario features. So there was little chance she would be discovered if she was careful.

Alex decided to head home and relax until either of us called him. His parents would be at work, and he had only a little brother, who was hanging out with one of his friends. So he was safe from his family finding out, at the time.

After kissing my mom and promising to text or call her as soon as I got in an area with cell phone reception after learning about my Dads whereabouts, I left. I saw Alex's vehicle pull out of the driveway just a minute after I did and head in the opposite direction I was headed.

* * *

ANDREA'S POV

I woke up, and after a moment of blissful ignorance, I remembered everything that had happened the day before. I laid there, staring at the ceiling as I let the memories of the day before trickle in.

* * *

THE NIGHT BEFORE

The date with Jacob had started out pretty well. While I could tell he was nervous, he did a decent job of trying to hide it. As luck would have it, we both even had chosen to wear the same color!

Everything was going good until he got those pains. Then his eyes turned red! It was pretty freaky and I asked if he was alright. He kept on saying he was fine, so I didn't push him too much. I kind of wish I did push harder.

Then, he transformed into a Lucario. I stepped forward as he transformed, I'm not sure why I did that. But as I did so, Jacob slung his hand out. He probably didn't realize he did it, but his new spike cut me across my hand and I retracted it quickly.

I saw his body grow fur and his bones change shape. It was exactly like the video of that guy who had changed into a Lucario all those years ago. What was his name again? Well... I didn't find that out until later.

Well, after the transformation finished, he stared at his paws and then his eyes shot up to me.

I said, "Jacob-" but before I could say more, (I was probably going to try to calm him down because I saw the fear in his red eyes) some woman screamed.

This must have really scared Jacob, because he immediately bolted to his feet and began sprinting out of the restaurant. I stood there in shock at what had just happened. Then, realizing that people would soon come out of their stupor and begin questioning me about my date transforming into a Pokemon, I tossed a few bills onto table and quickly left.

I drive home in a state of mild shock, but got there safely. After I made sure that the front door was locked, I went to my room and collapsed on the bed. I didn't even bother to worry about wrinkling my blue dress. I was beyond caring about that at the time.

It was about that time that I noticed a prickly feeling begin to take hold of my skin. It felt like the sensation you get when you go outside directly into the hot sun after exiting a cold air conditioned building. I shifted uncomfortably, and stood up to turn my fan on, thinking that I was hot.

I took two steps before the sensation turned to a very painful one that seemed to originate from my chest. I fell to the ground, startled by the unexpected pain, but it vanished only a moment later.

I laid on the floor, shivering not due to cold, but due to fear. I was terrified at what was happening. And I wasn't even sure what was happening! I got up carefully, not wanting to trigger whatever caused the pain in the first place. As I reached for the switch to turn my fan on, my vision went blurry and I stumbled backwards as a fire seemed to ignite at the center of my eyes! I cried out and twisted around as I rubbed my eyes, desperate to getting the burning sensation out of my eyes!

Then, without explanation, the pain stopped and I lowered my hands to see that the world was unchanged around me. I shook my head and decided to lay down and wait for my parents to get home. I thought they would know what to do. As I passed my dresser, I glanced at myself and froze when I saw red in an image that should have contained none of that color.

I looked closer, and sure enough, my eyes had turned the same red that Jacob's had before he transformed.

The same moment I pieced things together, I felt the pain explode all over my being. I must have hit my head or something on the way down to the ground, because the next thing I remembered was staring at the base of my dresser in near complete darkness.

When I regained consciousness, I put my hand to my head, and realized that my hand was no longer my hand. It was a paw. It had three fingers and a spike on the back of it. When I moved my fingers, it moved per my instructions. I shot up and stared into the mirror, recoiling at the sight that met my eyes. I fell on my butt, and promptly yelped as my new appendage asserted its existence by getting crushed and letting me feel pain.

I stood back up, wobbling slightly as I got used to standing with the extra weight of a tail, and approached the mirror. This time, I did not recoil and instead inspected my new body with a sense of mild horror. I was a Lucario in every sense of the word. I had the chest spike, which was stabbing through what used to be my pretty blue dress. I had grown the same color fur in the same places I had seen Jacob's fur grow. My dress, like Jacob's clothes, had many rips and holes in it due to my body changing violently and forcing the cloth to expand and tear.

I heard the door open and reasoned that it was my parents returning home from their own little romantic dinner night. I ran out of my room and yelled, "Mom! Dad!"

Or at least, that's what I wanted to say. Instead, I heard myself making sounds that could not be mistaken as anything else but Pokemon language. Even though it was the Pokemon tongue, I could understand it easily. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for my parents.

My dad rushed into the room and he said, "what are you doing in my house!?"

He didn't recognize me. It was dark, so he probably could not see the ruined dress I had.

I tried to say, "Dad, it's me!", but only Pokemon noises came out.

My dad grabbed a bat and held it menacingly while saying, "get out or I'll use this!"

I was so scared. I quickly ran out the back door and into the woods nearby.

After I stopped, I promptly fell to the ground and began crying. How else was I to respond to being threatened by my own father! Being kicked out of my home!

I cried for a long time. After awhile, I calmed down enough to begin thinking somewhat clearly.

It was clear that I was not going to be able to talk reason into my parents. They would just assume I was a wild Pokemon that had somehow got into the house. It didn't happen often, but it happened sometimes. I couldn't go to one of my friends and explain. I didn't want anybody to see me like I was!

The only option that I could see was going to Jacob's house. My reasoning was that he would be able to understand Pokemon due to his own transformation.

So, deciding that was the best course of action, I made my way to Jacob's house. I took a shower and put on some clothes that were not all ripped up. Then I got around to telling him what happened, I broke down again. He let me cry on his shoulder...

After that, I went to bed.

* * *

PRESENT TIME

The sound of a pan being set on a stove told me that someone was downstairs and was most likely making breakfast. I heard the sound of a door, probably Jacob's bedroom door, opening and the soft sound of someone descending the stairs.

I waited for about a minute before deciding to leave the room and head downstairs. Before I left the room, I put on some clothes I had found the previous night and had laid out for in the morning. I hoped they wouldn't mind. I was halfway down the stairs when I heard someone drop the pan. I then walked up behind Jacob, in full view of Mrs Simmons, and she dropped the pan once again, causing me to wince.

Determined to put down the rising awkward situation before it was an issue, I gave a small wave and said, "good morning Mrs Simmons."

She blinked once and said, "umm. Honey. I can't speak the Pokemon language."

I facepalmed (or should it be called facepawed?) while Jacob said, "she said good morning."

"Morning dear. How many pancakes would you like?"

I was shocked at her completely unfazed attitude, and it took me a moment before I held up two of my fingers and said, "two, please."

"I'll take three please," Jacob said and she nodded before turning around and starting to prepare them.

I followed Jacob to the living room, and after he walked away to see if his dad was awake, I heard the doorbell ring. Jacob went and got it, and a minute later, I saw him walk back into the living room with Alex behind him!

I jumped over the couch, and said, "Jacob! Tell him to go away!"

"What was that?", I heard Alex ask.

I heard Jacob sigh and he said, "people are going to find out anyways. Why not go ahead and tell them?"

"Cause I don't want people to see me as a Pokemon!" That was the truth! I didn't want anyone to see me like this. It was so embarrassing!

"C'mon. You'll be human again soon, so why not enjoy yourself for however long it lasts?"

I paused and considered it for a moment. It was true that this was unlikely to ever happen again. It was also true that I would be transforming back into a human quite soon as well. I decided to give it a try. If just to get out from behind that stupid couch.

"Fine. I'm getting up," I said as I stood up, crossed my arms, then glared at Alex with a look that said, "choose your next words VERY carefully. They may determine whether or not I will leave you with the ability to have kids."

"Why is that Lucario wearing clothes?", Alex asked bluntly. My cheeks immediately became inflamed and I began spewing out a long line of abuse that I wanted to do to him. Once I noticed Jacob wince after a rather harsh threat involving- well. (Lets just say it would change the rating to M). I decided to stop.

Once I stopped, Alex turned to Jacob and said, "I feel as though I was just scolded very harshly. Was I?"

Jacob answered with, "Basically, yes," and quickly added, "why don't we all just sit down and talk like sane people?" He mostly directed the question towards me, who glared in response before sitting down.

After we spoke for a little while, Jacob's mother told us that breakfast was ready.

If Alex had not been there, I could have sworn that male Pokemon eat in the fastest manner possible by putting the biggest pieces in their mouths very quickly and with little concern about little things, like breathing. But with the presence of Alex, it showed me that all males seemed to eat in the same fashion.

It was actually pretty impressive, while also being quite disgusting.

They finished much faster than me and left. Jacob's mom, apparently immune to the antics of teenage males eating habits, finished before me and started making sure everything was tidy. It was a little awkward, not being able to make conversation with her. But she made no comment on it and soon excused herself.

As I was finishing up the heavenly pancakes, Jacob's Ninetails came in and grinned when she saw me.

"So Andrea, that's your name, isn't it?", Lucy said while settling down on her stomach close to the table

I finished chewing the last bit of pancake and nodded at the Pokemon.

The fox Pokemon crossed her paws and laid her head on top of them before saying, "so does Jacob prank people at school? That's something I've always wanted to find out."

I blinked, not expecting the question.

"I don't think I've ever seen Jacob pull a prank at school. Why? Does he do it at home?"

The fox Pokemon laughed and said, "you don't know it, but me and him have been having a pranking war for years. He's actually pretty good," she said this last part with grudging respect obvious in her tone.

I stood up with a shrug and washed the plate while saying, "well what was his greatest prank?"

She got an annoyed look and said in a low tone, "we do not speak of that day." While she said this, her tails curled themselves closer to her body and she laid a protective paw over them.

I rolled my eyes at her dramatic reaction and asked, "where did those two go?"

"Down to the basement. Follow me." She got up and led me to a door that revealed stairs when I opened it. I heard Alex say in a low tone, "and is Andrea going to ditch her clothes?"

I bristled when I heard that, but before I could stomp down there and smack him around, Jacob said, "bro, she's my girl! Don't be talking about her like that!" While I didn't particularly like being called, "his girl", it calmed me down enough so that I was able to put a smirk on my face and walk down the steps while saying, "being, "your girl", can be debated right now."

After talking again for a bit, and most of it spent with them trying to persuade me to go outside and try to use Pokemon moves, I relented and agreed to do so.

It was after Jacob had used aura sphere and I was trying (and failing miserably) to use aura sphere when it happened. Alex reached forward, presumably to correct my postures when he scratched himself on my paw spike as he pulled his hand back.

A moment later, I felt something strange come from Alex's direction and was stunned to see a new addition to his anatomy.

I couldn't resist chuckling at his antics when he began running in circles and pulling on his ears.

After learning of Alex's possible ability to speak to Pokemon, we headed back to Jacob's house to confirm it with Jacob's mom, the only one of us that we knew could not understand Pokemon and could speak English. We learned, much to my happiness, that not only was Alex speaking English, but so was I!"

After Jacob shared his theory on how we transformed, which was pretty reasonable and sounded like the most likely cause of my transformation and Alex's partial change, that's when the reporters showed up...

The horror...

* * *

And here's another chapter. Please review, it tells me whether or not you are enjoying the story, what you would like to see, and what I need to improve on. (Those who have made requests already, I'll be sure to put those in as soon as possible. I've yet to find a good place to enter them in and make them look good).

Also, I have put up a new poll on my profile. It has to do with the next Fanfiction I might attempt. So please vote (right after leaving a review!).


	5. The Ways of Aura

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 5

To those who have reviewed, thanks a ton :). Also, the reason I am including Andrea's POV is because a few people requested it of me (I'M NOT RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS. Not by a long shot.) And to those who are wanting to see more characters from Curse of the Lucario, never fear! I shall be bringing them in soon :).

The ways of Aura

Chapter 5

* * *

ANDREA'S POV

Alex drove to Savannah's house in relative silence. The only sound being the radio that was playing. Neither of us were really listening to it during the ride.

I kept the hood of my hoodie on and sat low in the seat so no one could see any of my fur or anything else. I DID NOT want anybody seeing me. Especially trainers. All evidence pointed to me being a full Lucario (not counting the vocal cords) and I assumed that anybody could catch me with a pokeball if I got hit by one.

When Alex pulled into Savannah's driveway, I said, "do you mind going and giving Savannah a little warning before I come to the door?"

Alex smiled and said, "sure. I'll wave when you can come out." He then got out, hoodie up and coming his ears, and went to the door.

After ringing the doorbell, Savannah opened it and Alex and her spoke for a little while. I couldn't hear anything due to the running vehicle muffling everything on the outside. Then Alex waved for me to come out. I tried to have the hoodie cover me completely before I hopped out.

I hurried to Savannah and she said, "hey, Savannah."

"...Andrea Stone, is that you?!"

"Yes, it's me. Can I please come inside before someone notices me? I'll explain in there."

Despite her open-mouthed look of shock, she said, "sure. Come in."

I turned to Alex and said, "I'll call you if anything comes up. Are you going to be able to hide your..." I gestured towards my head and he got it.

"Yeah. My parents and brother are not home right now. I can make sure they don't notice them until I want them to. I'll keep my phone handy so I'll hear you if you call or whatever."

I nodded and he headed to his vehicle as I went inside and waited for Savannah to close the door.

"Are your parents home?", I asked, listening carefully for approaching footsteps.

"No. Not right now," she said as she closed the door and waved excitedly for me to follow her into the living room where she sat.

The moment I sat, I yelped in pain as I crushed my tail (man it felt weird saying "my tail"), she asked, "so YOU were the one who transformed that is being talked about all over the tv?"

I shook my head and spent the next thirty minutes explaining how my date with Jacob turned into a disaster, how I was chased out of my house by my dad, and how Alex now had Lucario ears and everything up to that point. I left out the part about Jacob's dad being THE Jason Simmons. If Jacob didn't tell people that little detail about his dad, then there must be a reason for it. I also left out Jacobs theory on how we got transformed via scratch. I was pretty sure that if I told her, Savannah would definitely try to scratch herself on my spike to see what it was like as a partial Pokemon. She was strange like that.

Savannah stayed silent for the most part, only interrupting to ask minor questions that I answered before continuing.

When I finished, Savannah asked, "how does it feel? Being a Lucario?" She was twisting her red hair around her fingers with a far away look on her face. Like she was imagining how it felt to be a Lucario even as I spoke.

I grimaced, and said, "well, it's a real pain in the butt, or tail is more like it. (I had sat on my tail so many times when I had tried to sit down that it was almost always aching.) I've got to spent about twenty extra minutes just drying myself after a shower. And this fur makes me SO hot!"

Savannah gave me a look and said, "well at least you still look very pretty as a Lucario."

I scoffed on the inside, but thanked her. Aside from my clothes, I looked exactly like any other female Lucario. (And it may have just been my own pride talking, but I thought that my breasts were a little bit bigger than a generic female Lucario's. Not enough to be super obvious, unless you spent a lot of time around Lucario's, but enough to draw my notice.)

"What really sucks is that my clothes don't even fit me any more. I had to borrow these from Jacob." With my hips being how wide they were, none of my human clothes could have fit me without ripping or having elastic in them.

She gave me a look of pity and said, "ouch. Though if you are hot, then why don't-"

"Don't you even suggest that I ditch my clothes," I pointed my finger at her in warning.

She put up her hands in a surrendering gesture and said, "okay, okay. It was just an idea."

I put down my finger and she asked, "if Alex is at his house, where is Jacob?

I shrugged and said, "he said he was going to visit someone who might know where his dad is. Some old family friends with kind of weird names."

I put my head on my paw and said, "I wonder what he's doing now?"

* * *

JACOB'S POV

After driving quickly to the Sanctuary, I parked in the spot that my dad usually parked when he was there on business or to visit. The lack of his vehicle being there caused me to worry a little, but not too much. There were a few other spots he could park and head into the Sanctuary, this spot was just the one he used the most frequently. Before I left my vehicle I glanced around, and after forcing away the urge to blush, stripped off my clothes and stored them in my vehicle.

While no one was around, and I knew that the Lucario guarding the village wouldn't let any Lucario wearing clothes enter the village, it was still a strange feeling. Being unclothed anywhere that was not private.

Shaking the feeling off, I headed into the trees and used a well worn path to make my way to the edge of the Lucario village that Luna lived in. Soon, I saw the opening to the clearing that the guards were posted.

The moment I entered the clearing, three sets of eyes were locked on to me as I approached.

The three there were three I recognized. Two were Lucario, one was still a Riolu. The two male Lucario were Riv and Lupe. I didn't know the Riolu's name due to not some talking to her.

Lupe stepped forward and said, "who are you, and what business do you have coming here?"

I stopped and said, "hey Lupe. I see you were stuck with guard duty today."

Lupe took a step back, surprised that I knew his name when he assumed me to be a total stranger, and said, "do I know you?"

I grinned and said, "of course you do. I'm the one who suggested for you to replace a certain someone's cleaning herbs with pink dye about a year ago." (The result of said prank had a certain Lucario turn pink for almost a month before the dye wore off.)

Lupe's eyes widened and said in a disbelieving tone, "Jacob?!"

I spread my arms and said, "the one and only."

Riv stepped forward and said, "if you are Jacob, then tell us, how did I break my leg when I was a Riolu?"

I laughed and said, "because me and you participated in a Game of Daring and you said that I couldn't climb the cliff next to the waterfall. When I did, you tried and fell. You were limping around like a newborn Ponyta for two weeks."

Riv nodded his head with a grin.

"Yup, that's Jacob. So how did you turn into a Lucario?"

I shrugged and said, "absolutely no clue. That's why I'm here. I'm trying to find my dad. Has he been through here recently?"

Lupe shrugged and said, "we've only been here for about two hours. So he hasn't been through here for two hours at least. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Are you going to ask Luna?"

I nodded and said, "so I have permission to pass?"

Lupe opened his mouth to answer, but Riv nudged him and said, "let's let her do it. She's got to learn." Riv gestured to the Riolu nearby, who had been silent until now, and Lupe nodded.

"Okay, just like you practiced. Give him permission." Lupe patted the Riolu on her back and she stepped forward and said, "you have permission to enter the village. Do not cause any trouble. Do not break any rules. And do not leave without letting the guards know. Break any of these rules and you will not he permitted to enter this village again. Is this understood?"

I nodded and said, "it is understood. Also, nice job for your first try."

The Riolu slumped in relief and smiled, "thanks. And you may enter."

I nodded and walked past them into the village.

I made my way through the village, keeping an eye out for both Luna and Narri and seeing neither.

I checked their house, I saw that they were not there. Stumped, I decided to ask where they were. I saw a Lucario walking past and asked him if he knew where they were.

He said that they were training out in the forest, and after thanking him, I made my way in the direction that he indicated.

After walking for a bit, the sounds of minor explosions and such things filled the air and I knew I was close to the training area of the forest. As I entered the training area, I was immediately slammed in the chest with an aura sphere that exploded on contact with my chest spike.

The explosion sent me flying back and I impacted a tree with enough force to cause a respectable dent in the bark.

I fell to the ground with my back leaning against the tree, groaning a little. That sucker had HURT!

"Wait! I think I just hit somebody with that last aura sphere!", I heard a voice shout out and a moment later, two Lucario approached me through the bushes I had been walking through a few seconds earlier.

"Oh crap! I did hit somebody!"

The voice that said this ran over to me and said in a sheepish tone, "I'm so sorry. Didn't realize you were there."

My scrambled brain finally realized who it was speaking to me and I smiled and said, "well this hurts almost as much as that time you learned how to use bone rush. Ouch."

Luna, for that is who had hit me with the aura sphere, stepped back in shock before saying, "Jacob?"

I sat up a little straighter and said, "yup. Hey Luna. How ya been?"

She blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes at me.

"Okay, "Jacob". Tell me something only Jacob would know about me or I'll slam you with another aura sphere."

She created an aura sphere to back up her words and I held up my paws in a peaceful gesture.

"You had a huge crush on Lupe when you were a Riolu but got over him after you saw how much he was afraid of Beedrill after we pulled the prank involving berry juice."

Luna's aura sphere vanished and she held out a hand to help me up.

I accepted the hand and she pulled me up with ease.

Now standing, I saw that the other Lucario that was there was Zion, a Lucario that had evolved from a Riolu almost a month ago. We were ok friends, even if we spoke infrequently.

"Hey Zion, I see that you're doing well as a Lucario." I grinned and said, "walking much better than last time I saw you, at least."

She crossed her arms and got a pouting expression, that caused both me and Luna to chuckle. (The reason we chuckled is because, right after Zion evolved, she had a little trouble getting used to her Lucario form, and was tripping over everything in sight. Needless to say, we brought it up as often as possible.)

"Luna! Zion! Did you hit someone or not?" Another voice, this one male, rang out from where Luna and Zion had come from.

"Coming Dad," Luna shouted back, telling me that the voice was Narri, the other person I had been searching for. Perfect!

Luna waved for me to follow her and said, "c'mon! I can't wait to see the expression on his face when we tell him!"

Luna and Zion jumped through the bushes while I followed at a slower pace, still hurting from being hit by the aura sphere.

As I entered the clearing that was pockmarked plenty of craters, I only saw Narri for a moment before his eyes narrowed in an angry glare and he disappeared for a moment before appearing directly in front of me by using what I recognized as extremespeed.

He slammed me against the trunk of a tree with his left arm pinning me to it and his right preparing an aura sphere.

"Luna," he said in a conversational tone, "what have I told you about talking with males that I haven't spoken to yet?"

With that one sentence, I suddenly remembered that it was about time for a very... awkward time of the year. Lucario mating season.

That would explain the fact that Narri, who had never said anything truly harsh to me, was holding an aura sphere to my face and was prepared to slam me with it with no provocation on my part. I had never had to worry about receiving the brunt if Narri's "protective father side" before, due to growing up with Luna (and being human, of course).

"Ah, Narri-" I started to say, but he snarled at me and said, "I'll deal with you in a moment," before turning his attention to Luna again with a much calmer expression.

Luna rolled her eyes (and I dare say that she seemed kind of embarrassed), as she said, "dad. You've met him before."

The aura sphere flickered slightly, mirroring Narri's hesitation. He leaned in and sniffed me for a moment before leaning back quickly with a shocked expression on his face.

"Jacob!?"

I gave him a weak smile and said, "yeah. Hey Narri. Do you mind letting me go now?"

Narri let the aura sphere blink out of existence before taking his arm off of me and taking a few steps back while holding a very embarrassed expression.

"I- um- well..."

I held up my paw to stop the awkward attempt to apologize and said, "you didn't know it was me. I'm not going to hold a grudge over it."

Narri nodded his thanks, and said, "okay. So what brings you here, Jacob?"

I stepped away from the tree, resisting the urge to rub my aching chest, and said, "have you seen my dad lately?"

Narri thought for a moment and responded with, "haven't seen him since about three days ago. Why?"

I frowned, and said, "well, he went out last night to the Sanctuary to deal with something and has yet to come home. We tried calling him, but we couldn't reach him. My mom had me come here to ask if he spoke with you and spent the night or something."

Narri shook his head.

"No. I haven't heard anything from him since three days ago."

At the end of the sentence, Narri's eyes widened and he said, "you don't think your father has turned back into a Lucario, do you?"

I paused for a moment. I hadn't even considered the possibility.

I shrugged and said, "I have no idea."

Before Narri could say more, Luna spoke up, "hey! When are we going to hear how you turned into a Lucario?"

I rolled my eyes and responded with, "that's part of the reason I want to find my dad. I have no clue as to why I turned into a Lucario, and I'm kinda hoping he knows how to turn me back into a human."

Luna acquired a hurt look and said, "so you don't like being a Lucario?"

I quickly replied with, "no no- wait! Yes! Wait- I do enjoy being a Lucario!" I was mildly flustered, trying to not offend her and get my point across.

She snickered at me, telling me that she was just playing around.

Narri and Zion rolled their eyes at our antics and Zion said, "so are we going to get back to the aura spheres now?"

Narri gave me an apologetic look and said, "sorry, but I did promise to teach them how to properly use aura sphere. Do you mind if we wait a little while before trying to figure out how "this" happened?" He waved his paw at me, indicating what "this" was.

I shook my head.

"It's no problem. In fact, do you mind if I learn how to do it as well?"

Luna seemed surprised at my request, but Narri got a twinkle in his eye and he laughed a little.

"You remind me of your dad. All those years ago, when he had recently transformed, he was also asking me to teach him the ways of aura," he grimaced and said, "I'm starting to feel old, talking like that."

"You are old," Luna said in a deadpan tone.

Narri put his paw to his heart and said in an overly dramatic voice, "oh! How the youth of today give no respect to their elders!"

"Narri, can you please teach us how to use aura sphere already and cut the dramatic crap?"

Narri let his arms drop and said, "alright. First off. Do you know how to create the aura sphere in the first place?"

I held up my right paw and created one with a little concentration. "Check."

If Narri was surprised, he didn't show it.

"Good. Now for the launching part. Have you used aura sphere before?"

"Only once," I admitted to him.

"How did you launch it?"

"Like this," I said before taking aim and lobbing it at a nearby tree. While it missed the tree completely, it hit the base of one a little past the one I aimed at.

To cover my mistake, I grinned and nodded, like I had achieved what I was going for.

"You missed from that close." Luna deadpanned and caused me to flinch. I could never fool her.

Narri seemed to hold back a chuckle before saying, "not exactly the best method of using aura sphere, but certainly better than Luna's first try."

Luna groaned while Zion laughed and I just looked at Narri for explanation.

"She released it too quickly and it exploded in her face," Narri explained and I began laughing.

Luna pouted silently before grinning and creating an aura sphere.

"Hey dad. Don't you always say one of the best ways of learning is to see someone else do it?"

I gulped when I realized what she was planning on doing and began to run.

"Well I hope you learn quickly, Jacob!", Luna yells as she holds her paw out in front of her and launched it.

Much to my confusion, instead of it traveling in a straight line and hitting me, it launched sideways from where Luna was aiming and dissipated before hitting anything.

In the awkward silence that arose, I innocently said, "so. I guess that was a prime example on what NOT to do?"

Luna growled at me and started to say something that would have most likely been quite cutting, but Narri intervened and said, "okay, Luna. That's enough. Let's work on launching the aura sphere-"

"Thanks Narri," I said I relief, before he completed his sentence with, "-then you can blast Jacob out of the forest."

Luna grinned and I gulped at the demonic (in my opinion) expression on her face. Zion just rolled her eyes at our antics.

For the next two hours or so, Narri taught us how to use a small amount of aura to thrust the aura sphere in the desired direction. Despite how many Lucario made it look, it was very difficult. Too much force in any direction, and it either; flew in the sky, slammed into the ground, or careened to the left or right into trees. Too much thrust made the aura sphere unstable and likely to explode in your paw. (Zion had a lot of trouble with this, her fur being singed was proof of this.) And on the other hand, too little thrust and the aura sphere dissipated before it hits its target or falls to the ground and detonates.

So, after you discovered your "happy medium" (as I called it), you had to constantly practice to make sure you made your aura sphere exactly the way the situation that you're in calls for.

(While Narri spent about twenty minutes explaining, I decided to translate it into a much smaller space.)

He said that each situation was unique, and your aura spheres had to be constructed specifically for that situation. An example he used was for big, sturdy Pokemon. (He used Aagron as his example). When going against a powerhouse like that, you wanted to spend a little more time giving your aura spheres a bigger "bang". Meaning, you packed the aura sphere with more aura in the same amount of space as a regular sized aura sphere. For faster enemies that could dodge these bigger (generally slower) aura spheres, such as most flying types, you would create smaller aura spheres that moved faster than the regular sized aura sphere but packed a smaller punch.

He had us practicing all these different situations, that I hardly noticed when a new presence made itself known in the clearing.

"Narri, Luna!" A familiar voice rang out and I turned to see Luna's mother, Pip, walking closer.

I noticed that she was giving me a calculating look, and she said, "oh. So has Narri found a male that he thinks is suitable for his little girl?"

If I was holding an aura sphere at the time, it probably would have exploded in my face from the utter embarrassment of that statement. As I was, it wouldn't have surprised me if a blush bled through my face fur. And if that wasn't enough, my tail had actually rose and the hair had stuck up to send a embarrassment signal to the world. I knew it was a signal of embarrassment after having seen Luna do the same after going through a few situations.

Narri rubbed his paw on the back of his head and said, "Pip, this is Jacob. He's turned into a Lucario."

Pip, the Lucario that was practically a second mother to me, realized what she had asked a few moments before, and promptly got a panicked expression on her face. (Luna, on the other hand, was making a weird sort of choking sound that I hardly paid attention to. She too, seemed very embarrassed by her mother's question.)

"Umm, well- I didn't know! But-"

I held up my paw and said, "how about we pretend you never said that, okay?"

She grabbed on to my suggestion like a lifeline and said, "so Jacob. How did you turn yourself into a Lucario?"

I shrugged.

"I'm not sure. That's part of the reason I'm here. I was seeing if my dad was here recently because he might know what happened to me. Oh, and how I turned my girlfriend into a Lucario as well."

"What?!" Almost everyone there said. (The sole exception being Luna, who said, "Girlfriend?")

"Oh. I guess I forgot to tell you about her. Oh. And my friend Alex also was partially transformed."

Narri had me explain what had happened, in full detail, from the point I had transformed to the point I had started driving to the Sanctuary.

After I told him everything, Narri looked at Pip and said, "do you mind checking his aura? I want to know if there is anything weird about it that may be causing these people to transform."

Pip nodded, agreeing due to the fact that she was very in tune with using aura. While Narri could do everything a regular Lucario could do with aura at top efficiency, Pip was a master at observing and detecting aura. She could, when concentrating very hard, sense any living thing within a miles radius. She was also very skilled at telling if a person was hurt or what a person is feeling, just by observing their aura. (I had learned of this a long time ago, when I had attempted to lie to her. I had done it once. Only once. Cue mental shudder.)

Well Pip got close to me and closed her eyes so she could concentrate fully on the task at hand.

She had only just closed her eyes and her aura sensing organs had been in the air for a moment before she flinched quite hard and nearly fell over when she took a few steps away from me.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" I asked, wanting to move forward to steady her, but not wanting to get closer in case I really made her fall.

Pip opened her eyes and rubbed them for a moment while saying, "it's your aura! It's like you're an inferno! Go on, take a look at him using aura vision."

One by one, Narri, Luna, and Zion closed their eyes and their aura sensing organs raised. And one after the other, they all had the same reactions as Pip. (Frankly, I'm not sure why they rubbed their eyes. From what my dad had told me, the images you got from aura sight pretty much went straight to your brain. Maybe my aura was so bright, them rubbing their eyes was just a natural reaction?)

Needless to say, I was worried.

"Will somebody please explain why you are all acting like that?!"

Pip answered, being the only one who was no longer rubbing her eyes.

"It's your aura. It's almost like it is a volcano erupting! It is bleeding from you at such a high rate that, well frankly, you should be in a coma."

Narri finished rubbing his eyes and said, "but, seeing as you are not in a coma, I would wager that your unstable aura is what caused you to transform your girlfriend. And somehow led to you transforming into a Lucario."

"Well do you have any way to reverse it? Or at least stop it from flowing so much so I stop turning people into Pokemon every time I accidentally scratch them?"

Narri and Pip looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation. Which, in all likelihood, they could have been using aura to speak directly into each other's head. But I had seen them do that before, and this seemed to be a conversation held with the eyes alone.

Pip turned to me and said, "well we can certainly try. Though I'm going to have to go get a few others to give me some help so I can make sure we do it correctly."

I nodded and said, "I can wait for however long you need me to wait."

Pip nodded and started to run back to the village. I hoped she would be successful in finding whoever she was looking for.

Once Luna and Zion fully recovered, we continued to launch aura spheres. I steadily got better with the regular and stronger aura spheres, but was terrible with the smaller sized ones.

Zion, despite her quiet nature, was best out of us at creating the big aura spheres and hers seemed to have more impact on what she hit.

Luna seemed best at the smaller ones, and could create and launch them at speeds that could make an old automatic weapon slightly jealous.

Somewhere around twenty minutes later, we saw Pip walking back into the clearing with three other Lucario of varying ages.

Two of them were pretty old, one was male and the other was female. The other was female and seemed to be about our age. I had never spoken with the one our age, nor the older ones. So I knew none of their names. Though I knew that the younger one had to be pretty skilled in manipulating aura for her age, if she had brought he along for the purpose of fixing whatever was wrong with me.

When they got close, Pip said, "go on, take a look."

I had a feeling that they had been skeptical of Pip's story, and the girl about my age closed her eyes and copied the reaction that everyone thus far had done.

"Yeah," she said as she rubbed her eyes, "he's bursting with aura."

The two older Lucario had not looked, but instead had waited and watched the younger Lucario's reaction. Smart move, on their part.

The older male said, "well we had best get in position and see what the problem is."

Without another word, the three other Lucario got around me and began to put their paws on me before I said, "wait a moment!"

They backed off and I said, "can you explain what exactly you are about to do? And why you are getting so close?"

The older female answered with, "we are going to see if we can look and see what is wrong with you. We cannot do this if we are not touching you. Do you wish for us to continue?"

I looked at Pip with a questioning look, and she nodded.

I said, "okay then. Please go ahead."

They had me sit down with my legs crossed as they all positioned themselves around me.

Pip was behind me. The old male was to my right while the old female was to my left. The younger female was in front of me. The older ones put their paws on my shoulders and Pip put her paws in the center of my back. The younger female put her paws on both sides of my chest spike, and I had to hold back a grin at her mildly embarrassed expression at the fact that she had to put her face so close to mine in order to keep her paws in place.

After giving each other some sort of non-verbal signal, they all closed their eyes and their aura sensing organs rose. Frankly, it was kind of creepy. Sitting there in the middle of them. They were poking around with what was basically my life force.

About fifteen minutes of sitting there, doing nothing, they all removed their hands at the same time and started talking using aura to speak silently.

I turned my head around a little and directed a, "well?", to Pip.

She broke off from the conversation to say, "we think we may have a way to reverse this. Just give us a little while." She then returned to the silent communication.

Five more minute of this, and Pip said, "okay. We're about to try to turn you back. If it doesn't work, we will at least try to cut off the flow of aura so you do not transform people with a simple cut."

I nodded my understanding, and they all got back in the positions they were in before.

Unlike before, about two minutes in, they all began to glow a faint blue. The faint glow then grew quite bright and they each began to produce what seemed like a "bubble" of aura that seemed to consume their bodies. Then, these bubbles began to expand and a minute later, the five of us were in a force field looking dome of aura that seemed to be competing with the sun to see who would be the brightest. I was immobilized by whatever was causing this. And I saw that my fur seemed to be rippling all over my body in a strange wave-like pattern, despite having no wind to disturb it. The four others in the bubble did not do this, only my fur was acting strange in that dome of aura.

At this point, I felt the aura being drained from my body. Despite the light show around me, I didn't feel much drain at all. It was like some of it was leaving, but for the most part, nothing was happening.

I felt a stinging sensation in my arms and, when I looked (I was able to move my eyes), I saw that my arms were beginning to return to normal. But, they immediately began to go back the way they were seconds before and I felt the aura around me seem to shift ominously.

Then the aura dome around us blinked out, and the four of them removed their hands from me and started panting, like they had been running for awhile.

The older female said in between breaths, "We managed to put something in place so that your aura will not surge when you scratch anybody. They might receive a little bit of aura. But it should not affect them in any way like it affected either of your friends."

"Man, that was HARD", the Lucario our age said. She seemed to be breathing the hardest and I thought I saw her shaking slightly from fatigue.

"Sorry," I apologized to her, but she waved it off.

"Practice makes perfect. Just please make it a priority to not be turning people into Pokemon. I do not want to do this on a regular basis."

"Vizin! Enough complaining! You should be thankful for having such remarkable prowess while so young. Now, let us be off." The male said as he made his way to his feet, also shaking slightly. The two older Lucario helped each other out as they made their way back to the village, with the newly named Vizin following behind.

I helped Pip to her feet and said, "thanks for helping me. I can see it took a lot of effort to complete. Are you alright?"

The reason I asked was because she was swaying in place and I was a second away from asking her to sit down and take a load off for a little while.

She waved my concerns off and said, "it was just very, unique. We never really saw anything like what we saw with you. I think all that aura that you were producing was the aura that has been in your body for your entire life. I believe that, whatever caused you to turn into a Lucario, removed what was stopping you from using your aura. And all the aura was bursting from your body, being released into people when you scratched them."

"But you made it so I will not do that anymore, right?"

She nodded and I smiled.

We spoke for a little while longer before I decided that I needed to get back home and tell my mom the result of my trip to the Sanctuary. I said my goodbyes and made my way back through the village and to my vehicle. The first thing I did when I got in my truck was to call my mom.

My mom answered the phone with, "hello?"

"Hey mom. I just got back to my vehicle. About to head back to the house."

"Okay. And did you find out where your father is? He's not home yet."

"Narri and Pip said that they haven't seen him for three days. So he's not visiting them. And I didn't see his truck at the spot he usually parks. But that really doesn't mean much."

My mom took a moment before saying, "okay then. You come on home. I'll try to see if I can get a hold of him in the meantime. But why did it take you so long to ask?"

"I'll explain when I get home. See you then."

"Okay," then she hung up and I jumped as I heard a knock come from my window.

I looked and saw that it was Luna.

I opened the door and said, "hey."

"Hey, do you mind if I come over? I haven't visited your mom in awhile. I already asked my parents if I could and they said it was fine."

I grinned and said, "I bet Narri was a little too enthusiastic about getting you out of the village."

She glared at me and I gave her no respite.

"Being around all those males must drive him insane-"

"Yeah yeah, let's go."

I chuckled as she huffed and buckled herself in and continued to chuckle as I started to drive.

* * *

It may not be my longest, but this chapter is a respectable size, I think. And speaking of thinking, tell me what you think about this most recent chapter in a review (please). Always enjoy hearing that :). (Those who are asking about how Jacob got turned into a Lucario, and how Jason got turned into a Lucario (again), all will be revealed in time :P.)

And I have put up a new poll on my profile. I would ask that everyone please vote on it. I will put the choices below.

1 Another Pokemorph/Transformation Pokemon fic. 5 votes so far.

2 Or whatever the heck I think I should do. 4 votes so far.

3 Naruto. (Wouldn't mind trying my hand at this one.) 2 votes so far.

4 Other (please send a PM with whatever you have in mind and I'll possibly add it to the poll. If I've seen/read it.) 1 vote so far.

5 Harry Potter (it would be my first attempt at romance) 0 votes so far.

(C'mon guy's, (and girls) I'm really rooting for choice five! Fellow Potterheads, unite and give me some votes!)

And yeah, please review and Vote

Peace out ^-^.


	6. Kidnapping and Cuddles

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 6

Sorry for taking so long on this one. I just had very little desire to write and I kept getting distracted by other stuff. This one is probably my shortest chapter. But here it is, I hope you enjoy it. (Also, I hope you enjoy the name of the chapter. You'll find out what it means soon enough ;) So read on.)

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if I said so in the last chapter, but I do not own Pokemon. This applies to this chapter and all those before (and after) this one.

* * *

Kidnapping and Cuddles

Chapter 6

JACOB'S POV

I resisted the urge to poke fun at the fact that Narri was in overprotective-father mode with Luna on our way back to my house. Mostly cause I was afraid she would smack me upside the head with a bone rush or something equally as painful.

We talked about stuff we had seen or done in the three weeks we had not seen each other in.

One of her stories, which involved an awesome party with a Ludicolo and a Riolu evolving halfway through an intense dance competition, made me laugh so hard that I nearly ran us off the road.

After that, while driving a little more carefully, I felt my phone vibrate and handed it to Luna.

"Can you see who's texting me?"

She nodded and took the phone.

"It says it's Andrea. Want me to read it to you?"

"Yes please."

I heard the click of her opening the message and she said, ""I'm at Savannah's house. Have you found your dad yet?", Do you want me to respond with anything?"

"Yeah. Please send back, "no. I couldn't find him. We're about 10 minutes from Savannah's house.""

I heard the steady clicking as she typed the message surprisingly fast for having only three fingers.

A few minutes later, Andrea sent back, "who's "we"? And I'll run out to you when you arrive. Please have the door unlocked."

"Want me to send anything back?", Luna asked after reading the message to me.

I shook my head.

"Nah. We're only a few minutes from picking her up. She can find out when she gets in. Do you mind moving to the back seat so she can get in faster?"

"No problem. Just a second." I stopped at a stop sign and she took the opportunity to unbuckle and move herself to the back seats. As she did so, she whacked me in the nose with her tail and she snickered at my loud, "Oww!"

I nurse my wounded snout and said in a overly dramatic tone, "oh how even the best of friends turn against one another in the end! Oh the calamity!"

She smacked me upside the head before leaning back and buckling herself in.

As I started to accelerate, I jumped as I felt Luna pull on my tail. I had poked it through the gap in between the seat and the backrest, and it was right beside Luna.

"Stop that! I'm trying to drive here."

She released my tail with a huff and we drove in silence for the last few minutes of the ride.

As I pulled into the driveway, I saw the door to the house open and close very quickly and only a moment passed before the passenger side was occupied by a certain hoodied (yes, hoodied. As in wearing a hoodie) individual.

"Hey Andrea. This is Luna," I said while waving my hand towards Luna, who smiled at Andrea. Andrea, instead of looking back at Luna, seemed to pull her hoodie around her tighter and she seemed strangely apprehensive.

"Umm, Jacob. Is she trustworthy?"

"Uhh, yeah. We've been friends for a very long time. I can trust her with just about everything."

Luna piped in and said, "don't worry about being embarrassed. There's nothing to be ashamed about."

Andrea finally turned around and looked at Luna.

I saw Andrea's eyes widen and then narrow as she turned to me and smacked me on my head with her paw, hard.

"You transformed someone, again!? You transform anyone else into a Pokemon while visiting them?"

I held up my paws in a, "please stop, I surrender," gesture.

"I didn't turn her into a Lucario. She was already a Lucario when I got to her."

Her eyes widened again and she said, "you transformed before he even got to you?!"

There was a moment of complete silence as me and Luna processed her words.

We then proceeded to gut-busting laughter that didn't stop for a long time, despite Andrea's angry demands to know what was so funny.

Finally, I managed to say, "she's always been a Pokemon."

Andrea looked at Luna with a weird expression on her face and said, "you have a friend that's a Lucario?"

I nodded and pulled out of the driveway as I said, "yeah. We've been friends ever since I was really young. You know that movie that is based of my dad?"

"Vaguely, but yes. What about it?"

"Well Narri, the Lucario that my father was (and still is) friends with, is her dad."

"Oh," she said in a little voice.

A silence started to build, but Luna said, "by the way, my mother made it so Jacob will stop transforming people. So you won't have to worry about him doing that anymore."

Andrea gave a sigh of relief and said, "that's good. Though I wonder if we're going to be able to help Alex with his," she gestured at her own head, "problem."

I shrugged and said, "I think I should probably go to Luna's mom and see if she can do anything to help him."

Andrea nodded. Not saying anything.

We drove a little more when Andrea said, "Jacob."

"Yes?"

"Why are you not wearing pants?"

I looked down, and noticed that, hey. I really was not wearing anything. I hadn't even noticed until she pointed it out.

"Cause they do not let Lucario who wear clothes into the village where Luna lives. And I forgot to put them back on."

"You forgot to put your pants back on," Andrea said carefully, pointedly not looking in my direction.

"Yeah. And I have to say, it's quite comfortable."

Andrea just sort of squeaked at my words and I heard Luna's voice via aura, "she is feeling embarrassed. Don't push her or she's going to get angry."

I nodded. Not knowing how to respond via aura, and said out loud, "but if it makes you uncomfortable, I'll make sure to wear something while around you. Okay?" I made my voice gentle, so she would know that I was aware of her feelings and willing to do something to fix what was wrong.

She nodded, still looking away, and said, "please do."

I heard Luna's voice in my head, "she's grateful. Nice job defusing that situation."

I nodded again, cursing the fact that I couldn't respond in the same fashion.

We rode in silence until I pulled into the driveway and I said, unnecessarily, "we're here!"

Andrea glared at me for a moment before her eyes widened and she whipped her head in another direction while I had the distinct feeling she was blushing under her fur.

I hopped out of the vehicle, quickly put on the shorts I had brought, and unlocked the door.

"Hey, mom!", I said loudly and I heard her respond with, "hey honey!"

I kept the door opened for Luna and Andrea. One who strolled in, standing tall in a familiar environment. The other, bolting in while slightly hunched as though to hide herself from the world.

I closed the door and said to my mom, "I brought Luna with me. I hope you don't mind."

She walked around into view, "it's no problem. So what did you do while at the Sanctuary? And did you figure out where your father has gone?"

We all gathered in the living room (Andrea sat on the other side of the couch that I sat on and Luna sat in a chair while my mom sat in the other chair available) and I told her how Narri had taught us how to use aura sphere properly. I left out the awkward part when Narri didn't recognize me at first. Along with the comment that Pip had said before she knew it was me.

"And Narri said he hasn't seen dad in awhile. So I don't think he went to the village. Have you tried calling him again?"

"Yeah. It's not getting through. I'm getting really-" she was interrupted by the doorbell and she rose to go answer it with a, "who could be calling at this hour?"

Luna, Andrea and me stayed silent, listening in on the visitor.

We heard the door open, and I perked up when I heard, "oh. Good evening Rick."

"Evening, Ms Simmons. Can I come in?"

I heard my mom hesitate and said, "go ahead, mom!"

Hearing me give the okay, she said, "come on in. There's something you should probably know anyways."

"Oh? What?"

I couldn't see her, but she was probably gesturing for him to move into the living room. Evidence of this was supported when he walked in and his eyes widened when he saw the three of us.

"Uh. Hello?" We must have been an odd sight. One Lucario grinning at him (me), one who waved at him before turning back to the magazine she had been reading (Luna), and one who was trying her hardest to not be noticed (need I really clarify?).

"Hey Rick," I said and he got a confused look.

"Do I know you?"

I flinched and said, "yeah. It's Jacob. Did you have something to tell us?"

Rick opened his mouth for a moment, but banished the question and instead said, "have you been able to get in contact with your father?"

Me and my mom acquires worried expressions.

"No. Have you heard from him? We've had no luck."

Rick got a serious expression and my stomach tightened with renewed worry for my dad.

"He has been kidnapped. We're not sure if it's a remnant of Team Styx or another group entirely."

It felt as though I had taken a full powered aura sphere at point blank range straight to my stomach. It felt like all the air had suddenly been driven out of my lungs.

Then I realized something else.

It was partially my fault. He had asked if I had wanted to go with him. I had blown him off. Instead going on my date.

If I had come, I might have been able to help him fight them off, or helped him escape, or or, SOMETHING!

"You would have been captured, and in the same situation as your father, Jacob," Luna said via aura, staring into my eyes in total seriousness. "If you had gone with him. We would not only be worried about him, but you as well. So don't you dare feel guilty about it."

Rick spoke up (she must have projected it to everyone, not just me), "she's right. The people who captured him had some serious technology. You wouldn't have been able to help him even if you were there. A Ranger who was there barely managed to stay out of their sights and slip away to inform us about what happened."

I wiped my watering eyes and said, "so. What do we do?"

He paused, then answered with, "you will do your best to be careful that no one tries to kidnap you. Be wary at all times and make sure that you never go anywhere without a few people around you."

I opened my mouth to protest, but he said, "and don't you dare try to do anything on your own to try to find your dad. Let the WPO and the Rangers do our jobs. We won't go any faster with you getting kidnapped. So don't take unnecessary risks!"

My voice was frozen, surprised at him raising his voice. But I nodded and he said, "good. Now I want you to tell me, how exactly did you turn into a Pokemon? And who these two are?"

I gestured to Luna, "this is Luna. She's always been a Lucario." Luna held up to fingers in a "peace" sign before continuing to read her magazine. (She had stopped when we were told about my dad being kidnapped, but went back to it after assuring me that I couldn't have helped and should not feel guilty.)

"And this is Andrea. My girlfriend-"

"That can be debated," she interrupted me and I flinched.

"-I accidentally transformed her by-", I explained how she had been transformed by me scratching her and how she had partially transformed Alex.

As I finished up my explanation, his phone vibrated and he excused himself to the kitchen to answer it.

He was in there for a minute before returning to the living room and saying, "I'm really sorry, but I have to be getting back. I'll keep you updated on any changes and please tell me if anything happens as it happens. It may seem insignificant, but it could help us locate your father. So nothing is too small."

After saying this, and receiving confirmations from us, he left.

We sat there. I was still in a state of mild shock along with my mom. Luna acted nonchalant, but I had known her long enough to see that she was very worried. Andrea looked a little afraid.

I scooted over and put my arm around her and squeezed gently, trying to comfort her without words. I was worried that she would push me away, but instead moved a bit closer to me and I took it as a good sign. She put her arm around me and squeezed me back while leaning her head against my side and closing her eyes. I felt a little better when I saw her face become a little more peaceful and was grateful that I managed to make her feel better.

My mom excused herself with a blank face and I heard her bedroom door close a minute later. It worried me a little that she didn't even poke fun at how I was acting with Andrea.

I heard Luna's voice a moment later in my head, "do you mind if I go get a shower? I'm starting to feel as awkward as a Phyduck in a group of Kadabra."

I couldn't nod at her without moving, so I blinked one eye slowly and she nodded.

She quietly went upstairs and I heard the water begin running a moment later.

It wasn't until about three or so minutes later that I realized something.

Andrea had fallen asleep while leaning against me. I felt her warm body against mine and, before I really knew it, I had fallen asleep holding her against me.

* * *

A tiny dot of sunlight, probably sneaking through the blinds on one of the windows, woke me up by shining directly on my closed eye.

First, I noticed that it was morning. Then, I noticed that I wasn't in my bed. Finally, I noticed that I was not alone.

At some point in the night, I had tilted my head so my cheek laid gently on top of Andrea's. We had slept through the night with her in my embrace. I felt this strange, protective, feeling in my chest as I lifted my head and looked at her still sleeping form. I had a weird fluttering feeling when I looked upon her peaceful face and tried to memorize every detail of it.

As my mind came back online, I blushed when I realized that my hand had, during the night, slipped down her side and was very close to forbidden territory. I moved it back to a safer area and I was disappointed when I heard the flow of her breathing change, indicating that she was waking up.

I freaked out for a moment. Should I pretend to be asleep? Should I tell her good morning? Apologize to her immediately?

As she slowly woke up, I decided on the second option.

I said in the softest voice I could muster, "good morning."

She stiffened for a moment before relaxing again and grunting something that I took as a, "and a pleasant morning to you, my lovely boyfriend whom I love so dearly."

(Okay. Maybe she wouldn't say it like that, but something like that.)

When she woke up a little more, I felt her lift herself off of me and had to restrain myself from moving us to make us closer again.

She rubbed her eyes and said, "what time is it?"

I glanced at a clock. "8:30."

She nodded slowly, then stiffened and her eyes burst open and she said, "did we, umm..."

"You fell asleep and I didn't want to wake you up," I said while resisting the urge to blush at the fact that I had spent the night cuddled with her.

She mumbled something that I didn't catch and I said, "what?"

She repeated herself, a little louder now, "thanks for not waking me up."

I smiled and said, "so does this mean I'm totally forgiven for turning you into a Pokemon?"

She looked at me with a little grin and said, "fine. You are forgiven."

I smiled widely and she pointed her finger at me, "but you still have to find a way to turn us back human. Got that."

I nodded, still grinning, and said, "I promise. No worries."

She nodded and lowered her finger.

"I'm going to go take a shower. Can you lay out some clothes for me?"

"Sure thing."

We stood at the same time and I stood still to let her walk past me towards the stairs.

As she went by, she quickly gave me a peck on the cheek and then continued on her way.

Me? I sat down and touched the spot she had kissed. The area around it seemed to buzz and I felt surprise that was soon replaced by a sense of quiet elation.

I couldn't help but grin as I stood and got a few clothes from a pile I had made in my room. I still grinned as I put the clothes outside the bathroom door and the smile persisted even as I prepared a breakfast of eggs and toast for the four of us.

Luna, roused by the sound (and smell) of cooking, shambled into the kitchen and I said in a happy tone that was quite unlike me, "morning, Luna."

Luna sat down at the table and laid her head back down to go back to sleep. I rolled my eyes.

She had a habit of going into semi-consciousness just long enough to get to the table before she drifted back off to sleep. That way, she woke up to find food in front of her.

As I finished up the first batch of eggs, I put a few pieces of toast on a plate with the eggs and put the plate next to Luna. I saw her nose twitch for a moment before her eyes opened and she began eating without a word.

I chuckled at her and continued to make breakfast. My mom came in later and accepted some eggs with a smile and a knowing wink that caused my smile to falter and turn into a blush when I realized that my mom had probably seen us in all our cuddely glory.

I shoved it to the side, while silently praying that she had not taken pictures of us. I knew she would do it. I could picture her easily, holding the camera while quietly saying, "awww, my baby is growing up."

I made a mental note to question her about that later, refraining from doing it then due to Andrea walking in.

I set a plate of still steaming eggs in front of her and she nodded her thanks.

I finished up my own eggs last and managed to eat slow enough so that I only beat Andrea by a few minutes. Luna had finished eating a good while ago and was laying on the couch, snoozing.

I put my dishes in the sink and excused myself to take a quick shower.

After during myself off, and making sure to wear a pair of shorts, I went back downstairs to find Alex sitting with Luna and Andrea as they watched tv.

"Hey Alex," I greeted him to catch their attention.

He perked up when he saw me and said, "so did you find a way to get rid of these?" He made his Lucario ears twitch as he pointed at them to make it clear what he meant.

I nodded.

"Yeah. I think we might have a way. We'll have to go to the Sanctuary and ask Pip, Luna's mom, if she can turn you normal."

Alex shot up and said, "well let's go! I want to go ahead and get rid of these, it's hot wearing a hood all the time."

I rolled my eyes and said to Andrea, "do you want to come? Maybe she can turn you back into a human?"

She frowned and said, "I wish I could. But I already asked your mom to drive me to my house and help me explain the situation to my parents. But go ahead without me. I'll probably go if it does work with Alex."

I nodded with a feeling of regret.

"Okay. Let me just tell my mom that we're leaving and we can go."

Alex nodded and Luna waved her acknowledgement.

As I walked to my parent's bedroom, Lucy whispered from a spot on the floor she was laying down on, "you were so adorable!"

I scowled at the Ninetails and she pouted while saying, "well you don't have to worry about your mom taking pictures of you. She didn't leave her room all night."

I stopped scowling, but held back from thanking her when her pouting look turned into a wide grin, "me, however. I was taking pictures from every angle possible."

I narrowed my eyes at her and said, "that's low. Getting a guy when he's asleep."

She snorted.

"Like you've never pranked me while I was asleep."

I considered that, then nodded with a, "fair enough."

After informing my mom that we we're going to the Sanctuary, and promising to be careful, Luna and Alex got in my vehicle and made our way to the Sanctuary.

* * *

JASON'S POV

I was only conscious for a short while. It was one of three times they allowed me to come to full consciousness each day. They had food left by my bed, and they gave me just enough time to eat it before turning the machine back up to its normal setting and forcing me back into slumber.

As I ate, I carefully added a little more of my dwindling supply of aura to the small area of my brain that I had managed to separate from the draining affects of the machine. I judged the amount of aura to be close to the amount I would need to establish a connection. It wouldn't last long. And it would probably force me into a coma for a few days. But if it let me warn my family, then so be it.

I felt the draining affects increase slightly, indicating that I had about a minute before it would return to normal levels. I finished the food quickly and managed to lay down before the ever present drain forced my consciousness into submission.

My last thoughts before I succumbed were, "I hope they are okay."

* * *

Okay. Sorry for the short chapter. But please review and tell me what you think about it. Also, to those who have requested for me to put in certain Pokemon, I SWEAR, I'm going to do it! Just as soon as I can, I will. And I'm still open to suggestions/requests. Just send them in via PM or leave them in reviews and I'll PM you to say if I can/will do that or otherwise. (Guests. While I love reviews, please do not ask a question and expect me to somehow answer you. There is nowhere to send a message to.) And to those who have yet to vote on the poll, please visit my profile and vote!

And yeah, that's about it. Talkingbirdguy out.


	7. Decaf aura, please

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 7

Okay, so newest chapter! Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing. It's a really uplifting to hear (read) what you think about this. And when you get done with this chapter, please be sure to read the stuff at the bottom. It's kinda important.

But without further ado, enjoy :).

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Decaf aura, please.

* * *

Chapter 7

JACOB'S POV

We traded funny stories as we drove to the Sanctuary, to pass the time. Luna gave Alex a good laugh by telling him the story of the Riolu that evolved while in a dance competition with that Ludicolo. Alex countered by telling her about his cousin who had a Phanpy that evolved into a Donphan while being given a bath and was stuck for awhile until they managed to cut the bath out from around it. Due to this experience, the Donphan had a slight fear of baths and water in general that made it very difficult for Alex's cousin to keep it clean.

Even though I had heard it before, it still caused me to laugh.

Despite the fact that Luna and Alex had never met, they got along splendidly.

As we calmed down from the funny story, Alex said, "Jacob?"

"Yeah?" I noted the uncomfortable undertone in his voice and paid closer attention.

"You said that Lucario are not allowed to wear clothes in the village, right?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. What about it?"

"Well. I'm part Lucario. Will I have to-"

Me and Luna both began laughing hysterically at what he was asking before he could even complete the question.

I blinked away the tears that had started to cloud my vision and said with a grin, "I think you be able to stay clothed. In fact, please do your best to stay fully clothed. I don't want to have that image burned into my brain."

Alex sighed a loud sigh of relief that caused a new round of chuckles from Luna and an unrestrained bout of laughter from me.

This lasted until I parked and calmed down enough to only let out the occasional chuckle.

I took off my shorts and stored them in my vehicle before we made our way into the woods. I noticed that Alex had his hood down and his ears were plain to the world.

I got his attention and said, "you might want to cover those until they need to be out. We don't want to have to deal with any more questions then we need to."

Alex shrugged and pulled the hood over his head, effectively hiding his ears.

We continued down the path and I said to Luna, "do you think Pip and the others will be up to helping Alex? She looked pretty tired after helping me."

Luna nodded and said with confidence, "they should be alright. And Alex won't be as difficult as you."

"Why do you say that?" I asked, interested in how I so difficult and how Alex wouldn't be.

"Because, well," she seemed to fish for the correct words before saying, "I look at him using aura vision and see a bright spot on his head while the rest of him has the usual amount of aura a human usually has. I look at you, and its like looking directly at the Sun! All of your regular aura has the transforming aura spread throughout it. When they tried to turn you back into a human, they tried to drain you of the aura that transformed you into a Lucario and leave your regular amount of aura behind. But since there is so much of the transforming aura in you, they just made a barrier that made it so you didn't leak as much aura. So you wouldn't transform anybody else with a little scratch. With Alex, since he only has that little bit of transforming aura, they can probably drain him of that little bit without too much problem."

I nodded and said, "okay. Well that's good news."

"But what about Andrea?", Alex asked, "what did her aura look like?"

Luna thought for a moment and gestured towards me, "she had aura that was very bright, like Jacob's, but not as bright. Andrea's aura is more like staring at a bright flashlight instead of the Sun. So I think they should be able to turn her back into a human. And, since she does not have the same overwhelming amount of aura that Jacob has, that's why you only got a partial transformation, Alex. If Jacob had scratched you, then you might have gotten a lot more than just ears."

Alex smiled and said, "well that's good news. Andrea is going to be very happy when we tell her that."

I nodded and felt a strange sense of disappointment at the news. Shoving the feeling away for later, I looked ahead to see the clearing with the guards looking up at our approach.

As we got closer to the guards I saw how they relaxed when they saw Luna, but gave Alex a weary look.

Luna noticed this and said, "don't worry. I'm just going to bring him to my mom, then he will leave."

They nodded and gave us permission to pass.

We moved quickly through the village, fast enough to keep anyone from stopping us and asking questions about Alex.

As we walked, I couldn't help but notice a strange sense of anger(?) directed at us. While I did not have the skill to actively read people's feeling, I could sense the collective emotions being directed at us as we walked.

I glanced around and saw that there were more than one or two Lucario giving me some not-so subtle glares. I noticed they were all males and silently groaned when I realized what they were so annoyed about.

They thought that me and Luna... were "together". That was the only explanation for all the bad vibes I was feeling after doing nothing obvious to deserve it. Most of the village was used to me and my dad coming there on a pretty regular basis, so I knew the sight of a human wasn't the cause.

I nearly shivered at all the negative emotions and wondered how Luna could ignore it so easily. Even as we walked and caught more Lucario's attention, the feeling grew stronger. By the time we got to Luna's home, I had gotten a sour taste in my mouth from the unfamiliar sensation of blatant jealousy.

When we walked in, I felt most of the affects vanish and silently thanked the walls for cutting off the horrible sensations.

Luna gave Pip a small hug before turning and saying, "mom, this is Alex."

Pip answered, via aura, "nice to meet you, Alex."

Alex smiled and said, "nice to meet you. And I can understand the Pokemon language. You can speak out loud if you want."

I blinked in surprise when I realized that I hadn't even noticed it when Alex had begun to understand Luna. I made a mental note to ask later when and how he found out about his new ability.

Pip nodded and said, out loud, "that makes things a little bit easier. Now please take a seat over here so I can see what can be done to turn you normal."

Pip gestured to a small stool and Alex sat down and removed his hood.

Pip bent so she was at eye-level with Alex's ears, his Lucario ears to be exact, and proceeded to poke and bend each ear gently in different directions until Alex said, "excuse me, but what are you doing?"

"I'm wondering why the aura gave you ears of all things. Why not fur? Or maybe red eyes?" The far-away look in her eye made me want to groan. I had seen that look before.

I knew that, if I let this continue, she would keep on coming up with theory after theory until she eventually found out the WHY behind his ears as opposed to some other part of his body being transformed. To protect us from this agonizingly thorough examination and theory creation, I put my paw on her shoulder and said, "Pip. Maybe you should save your examination of Alex until you get to know him a little better?"

She paused, and I saw the far-away look in her eyes vanish.

She then straightened up quickly and hit me in the eye with one of her aura sensing organs, causing me to take a step backwards and grimace as I held my now watering eye. She turned quickly to apologize to me, becoming more and more flustered as she consequently hit Alex in the face with her tail and knocked him off the stool.

Needless to say, Luna was quite entertained and Narri was very confused when he walked in to find me holding my eye, Alex on the ground after getting knocked off the stool, and Pip standing around looking very embarrassed at the situation.

"Uh, what's going on here?", Narri asked me, the only somewhat sane looking one at the time.

"Nothing. Please don't ask," I grumbled while still rubbing my eye. Despite how mushy a Lucario's aura sensing organ may look, they are actually quite tough. My watering eye was obvious proof of this.

Once things calmed down, Pip had Alex sit back in the chair and closed her eyes so she could concentrate on the task of looking at his aura.

After a moment, she let out an annoyed huff, opened her eyes and turned to me.

"Would you mind stepping outside? Even with that barrier put into place, you are leaking enough aura to make it difficult to examine his aura."

I nodded mareepishly and said, "no problem. Sorry."

"Not your fault, so don't worry about it," Pip said with a small smile and closed her eyes as I stepped outside and sat on the ground, waiting for the word to come back inside.

As I sat there, legs crossed, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation of the Sun shining on my fur.

I opened one eye when I heard someone approaching and saw a male Lucario walking to me with both paws clenched and his entire body language seemed to scream, "prepare to feel my wrath!"

When he got close enough, I said in a pleasant tone, "morning."

This caused the Lucario to pause for a moment before he snarled, "I challenge you for Luna!"

I opened both eyes and said, "me and Luna aren't together. I'm just a friend. You'll have to talk to Narri if you want to be with Luna."

I resisted the urge to intimidate the Lucario and try to run him off. Even if I didn't see Luna in a romantic light, I still wanted to protect her. I considered her my sister in all but blood and species. And anyways, Narri would take care of intimidating anybody that would try to hurt Luna.

He hesitated, then said, "oh yeah! Well what were you you doing walking with her? Her father won't let just any male walk with her."

"I was coming here," I answered in a calm tone.

"Why?"

"I don't think that's any of your business," I said, still holding on to my calm tone, but losing my patience.

He openly sneered at me and only the door opening stopped me from jumping up and punching him. (Later, I was pretty surprised at the aggressiveness I felt. But at the time, it felt right.)

"What do you want?", Narri's icy tone asked the Lucario who sneered at me. Even without much control over aura, I could sense Narri giving off a vibe that said, "I thought I told you before, you are not welcome here."

The sneer vanished and the Lucario's who demeanor changed, "sorry, Narri. I was simply making sure this "Lucario" wasn't bothering your daughter." He put a sneering tone into the word Lucario that did nothing to hide his distaste towards me.

Narri glanced at me, then looked at the Lucario and said, "he's ten times more worthy of my daughter than someone like you."

I was both shocked and mildly pleased by this announcement. Shocked, because I didn't expect him to ever even consider me in that light. And pleased, because he trusted me enough to actually consider me worthy of Luna. (Even though I had no intention of... getting together with her.)

The Lucario began shaking with rage, and Narri said, "Jacob, you can go back inside now."

I got up and went inside. As I walked in, I silently cursed as I remembered that it was considered very disrespectful to turn your back on a Lucario who sought a fight with you.

I knew I would be seeing that Lucario again, and next time it would end with one of us in a lot of pain.

Narri stepped in, back first, and closed the door behind him.

As he walked past me, he said to me via aura, "don't be getting any ideas about Luna. I just told him that to get him to go away." without giving any sort of outward appearance of sending me the message.

I blinked in surprise and felt a little annoyed at being used in such a manner.

"Jacob, come over here please," Pip called for me and I went over to where she was sitting behind Alex, who still had the Lucario ears.

"Anything wrong?", I asked her and she shook her head.

"No. I'm just about to start. I need you here as bait."

I paused, digested her words, then said, "what?"

She sighed and said, "it's kinda complicated but this is the gist of it. The aura in Alex, the aura that causes him to have Lucario ears, is pretty well situated where it is. I would just exhaust myself trying to pry it loose and get it out of his body without harming him-"

"Which I am very thankful for," Alex interrupts with a nervous grin and I rolled my eyes.

Pip continued, "anyways. Since you are the original source of the aura, the transforming aura will want to get back to you. So what I am going to do is use a tiny bit of your aura to "persuade" the transforming aura in Alex that it wants to leave. Then, I'll simply transfer all of it back into you."

I frowned and said, "but what will happen when the aura goes back into me? Will I lose my human vocal cords?"

Pip thought for a moment, and shrugged.

"I'm really not sure. But if that does happen, we will find a way for you to be able to communicate."

I sighed. "Joy. Now what do you need me to do?"

She patted the chair next to her and said, "just sit here and lay your paw on my shoulder. I'll take it from there. Just make sure not to break contact."

"What happens if he stops touching you?", Alex asks as I sit down.

Pip answers in a frighteningly cheerful tone, "you'll probably explode with all the aura energy being confused and having nowhere to go."

Alex blinked, not sure if she was joking or not, than paled and said to me, "please don't let go."

I rolled my eyes and said, "don't worry. I don't want to have to wash your blood out of my fur."

"I don't think I'll much care about the condition of your fur in the state I'll be in!"

I was about to respond with a clever retort, when Pip said, "okay, you two. We'll resume the gallows humor after we get those ears off of Alex."

We both answered with, "fine."

"Good. Now Jacob, please put your paw on my shoulder and stay as still as possible. You try to stay still as well, Alex."

Alex stiffened up and I resisted the urge to comment on his uncanny imitation of a statue. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna and Narri sit down to watch.

Pip closed her eyes and her aura sensing organs rose in the air until they were parallel with the ground. I felt a faint tug from the core of my being and assumed that she had taken the little bit of aura she needed.

I watched Alex, who had closed his eyes when we started, and saw Pip work her magic.

Before our eyes, the Lucario ears on Alex's head began to turn blue and semi-transparent. Then it began to lose all resemblance to ears and turned into pure blue columns of aura sat on the top of his head. As I watched, the blue columns began to bubble and writhe as they sank into Alex's head. A moment after the last of the aura sank into his cranium, I felt the aura that Pip had used return along with the extra aura that used to be Alex's ears.

While the aura Pip had borrowed seemed to just settle back into my core, the extra seemed to buzz around the rest of my body. It didn't seem to do anything bad. In fact, it started to feel good. Really good. The closest thing I could compare it to was maybe drinking several energy drinks one right after the other. And with this energy, I felt a strange sense of euphoria that made me smile like a maniac.

(I heard what happened during this time from the others. I vaguely remembered it due to all the weird sensations during it but not very clearly.)

Pip opened her eyes and said, "okay, you two can move. We're done."

And move I did. Not really paying attention to my surroundings I jumped up and began pacing quickly around the room and my breathing increased heavily even though I had done nothing strenuous. I could feel my heartbeat begin racing, as though I had taken part in the Running of the Tauros and sprinted the whole way.

"Jacob? What's wrong? How are you feeling?" Pip was standing nearby and she watched me with a worried look.

"NothingswrongatallPipwhywouldanythingbewrong," I said, speaking so quickly that my words began to run together. I kept the demented smile while doing this, not seeing any reason to stop.

They all gave me a worried look and Narri said, "Jacob. Please sit down and try to calm yourself down a little."

"ButIamcalmNarri," I said in the same super fast way as before. And unknown to me, but obvious to those watching, I began going a little faster and my breath was coming a little harder.

Narri gave Pip a helpless look and she thought for a moment before saying, "Luna, Narri. Take Jacob to the training field and have him begin shooting off as many aura spheres as he can. I'll bring Alex there. Go!"

Luna began to direct me to the door with a worried expression and said, "okay, Jacob. Let's go to the field we were at yesterday. We can practice using aura sphere. How does that sound?"

When we got outside, I was still not in my right mind, and being outside with all that glorious OPEN SPACE, I shouted, "race you there", and immediately took off in the direction of the field.

If I had been even in slight control of my senses, I would have been both impressed and scared at the speed that I achieved as I ran through the village. It wouldn't have been bragging to say that I was leaving a large trail of dust in my path and was far outpacing Narri and Luna. Because Luna and Narri were not in eyesight of me, I'm not exactly sure how I managed to run a straight path through the village despite the buildings in my way. (Later investigating pointed to the possibility that I had actually jumped over a few buildings. I certainly felt like I could leap a few buildings in the state I was in.)

After an undetermined amount of time, I got to the field I had been in the day before and began taking laps around the perimeter. Why? Because I was still so full of energy despite the half-mile sprint I had just done and needed to let it out.

Luna and Narri arrived a little later and Narri shouted, "Jacob! I want you to practice using aura sphere! Now!"

I immediately stopped and formed an aura sphere in both paws and shot both into the trees closest to me. Then I did it again. And again. And again. Again.

I blacked out some time after that. But before I did, I apparently extended the diameter of the training field by about ten feet in all directions by destroying every tree I could see using various aura related methods. According to the Luna and Narri, I even knocked down a few using only raw aura to just shove the trees hard enough for them to break.

The entire time I was in that mindless state of pure destruction, I was still smiling.

* * *

(This is about the time I started remembering again.)

"-think he's worked it out of his system. Oh, he's waking up." I opened my eyes to find Luna and Pip bending over me.

My whole body ached slightly and I groaned loudly as I moved myself in a sitting up position.

Pip put her paw on my back and said, "hold up there, Jacob. You should probably take it easy. Especially after all the aura you used and the ordeal you put your muscles through."

I licked my dry lips and croaked, "what happened, exactly?"

Luna and Pip glanced at each other and they took a few minutes to tell me what I did while in that state.

I processed their words and asked, "why did that happen? Why did I get that huge surge of energy? And where are Narri and Alex?"

"Over here!", Alex called out as he and Narri approached us from the now demolished woods.

We waited for them to get closer before Pip said, "we think the reason you lost control is because the aura did not simply settle in you like I expected it to. I had expected your body to just absorb the aura and incorporate it in with your usual amount with no change to your being. But that wasn't the case. As we found out, the aura had taken on enough of Alex's traits that, while it would still be drawn to you, it wouldn't settle due to the differences it had taken. So, since it was unable to settle down in with the rest of your aura, it began to settle into some of the most changeable parts of your anatomy. Your muscles."

Luna took over from there.

"Basically, you just needed to work it out of your system. The boost in strength was just the new aura screaming to be used. Since we were worried that the aura would damage your muscles, we decided that we couldn't wait to just drain it out of you. That's why we "were" going to bring you here and let you blast off aura spheres until you got tired. But then you kinda ran off on your own and the rest you know."

I hung my head mareepishly and said, "so sorry about the trouble."

"Who the heck did this!?" A familiar voice yelled from the edge of the clearing. (The original edge, not the new one that I created.)

We all turned to see the Lucario that in has spoken to earlier standing there with a group of about six other Lucario and Riolu. I noticed that all of them were looking around with various amounts of stunned amazement and nervousness.

I reached my paw out to Alex and he obliged by pulling me to a standing position. I swayed a little and Alex put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

I nodded my thanks to him then raised my paw and said with an apologetic smile to the group of Lucario, "yeah, sorry. This was me. I got a little hyper and needed to work it out. Guess I went overboard." I saw Luna hold back a snort out of the corner of my eye at my downplayed response to the destruction I had caused.

The Lucario who had come looking for a fight with me earlier, first took another look at the area around him, then looked at me with a new measure of respect. And possibly fear.

Before anyone could say anything else, Pip said, "alright everyone. He needs to rest. Narri, give him a hand back home."

I took a step forward to protest, but nearly collapsed under my own weight. The only reason I didn't eat dirt is due to Luna jumping forward and putting her arm under my chest to hold me up.

I muttered, "thanks," and she nodded.

Luna let me use her as an anchor to keep my balance and took up a little of my weight.

We began walking like that. With Pip in the front leading our little group. Alex and Narri just a little ways behind me and Luna.

As we walked, I grinned and whispered to Luna, "This reminds me of that time-"

"-when we challenged those Mankey to an all out brawl?"

I snorted at the memory and said with a wry grin, "though I distinctly remember our positions being reversed."

I smiled as I remembered how we had both sustained a great deal of bruises and painful bumps from the two Mankey we had fought. As a result, we both were barely able to walk. Thankfully, Luna had evolved into a Lucario before that point, so we could both lean against each other to help us walk evenly. Part of the reason we had gotten into the fight was to see how skilled Luna was as a Lucario, so her evolving was kind of a double edged blade.

But since Luna was not used to her evolved form yet, she suffered more than me and I had to support most of her weight as we went back to the village. Now, it was the other way around. Sort of.

When we got closer to the village, Narri said, "why don't we take him to the hot springs? They will help his muscles relax and he can rest."

Pip snorted and said, "you just want to be lazy and are using Jacob as an excuse."

I could tell Narri flinched, even without looking behind me. But I could tell he got excited when Pip said, "you're lucky that the hot springs help with both tense muscles and relaxing."

She changed her path to lead us in a slightly different direction and I could tell that Narri was pleased.

I noticed Alex walk up until he was level with us and he said, "they have hot springs here?"

Before I could respond, Narri enthusiastically said, "yes and they are amazing!"

I could see Narri's desire to run to the steamy paradise, but he didn't out of concern over my welfare.

Oh who am I kidding? The only reason he didn't is because he knew that Pip would snatch him up by his tail and force him to stay out of the water while the rest of us enjoyed it immensely.

Pip sighted a medium sized body of steaming water that was empty and led us there. It was only after they helped me into the water that Narri's restraint broke and he sunk into the water with an expression of pure bliss. Alex took off his hoodie and put all the stuff in his pockets on the article of clothing along with his shoes, socks, and shirt. He left his pants on and sunk into the water with an expression like Narri's.

I positioned myself on a rock so my back was against the side and my head would stay above the water, then I allowed the soothing affects of the warm water lull me to sleep.

* * *

ANDREA'S POV

I nervously smoothed my fur as we drove closer to my house. Would my parents accept me? Throw me out of the house?

Thankfully, Hannah (she insisted that I called her that instead of Ms Simmons) broke me out of my frantic worrying by saying, "relax. Everything's going to work out just fine."

I nodded, uncertain to whether I would be able to respond without showing how nervous I felt.

We pulled into my house's driveway and I was both relieved and scared to see that both my parents vehicle's were there.

Hannah switched the key to off and said, "do you want to come with me to the door? Or do you want me to explain a little, then signal for you?"

Despite the latter being the easier option, I said, "I'll come with you."

She nodded and we both got out and headed to the door. I made sure to make my clothes covered as much as my body as possible.

She waited a moment for me then said, "ready?"

I nodded, swallowing to loosen up my tight throat.

She pressed the doorbell and I heard the sound of footsteps come to the door.

It opened and my mom's face brightened on seeing Hannah.

"Ms Clemmons. It's nice to see you. What brings you-", her words trailed off when she saw me standing uncomfortably next to Hannah.

"Hey, mom," I said quietly.

My mom didn't speak for a second, and Hannah said, "perhaps we should sit down and I can explain. Is your husband home?"

"In here!", my dad's voice came from the living room, "somebody call for me?"

My mom turned and said, "just wait right there, honey."

She turned back to us and said, "Andrea!?"

"Yeah Mom. Now can we please go inside?"

She nodded and moved to let us by. I led Hannah to the living room, and before I went in, I said, "Dad. Please don't freak out."

Before he could ask why I said that, I walked in to see him sitting on the couch while watching what I noticed was a rerun of one of his favorite shows.

He tensed and loudly, as though he was talking to someone outside of the living room, "Andrea? Care to explain?"

I stood there and said, "this is going to take awhile, Dad."

He blinked, and thankfully, Hannah walked in and sat down. My mom followed after her, sitting next to my dad.

Hannah explained what had happened to Jacob during the date and how he was the very one that everyone was talking about who had transformed into a Lucario.

When she fell silent, I took up the talking and told them how I was unable to speak English when I had transformed. It was after I had said that I had turned into a Lucario in my room that my dad's eyes widened in horror and I could tell he had connected the dots.

"But it wasn't your fault!", I said hurriedly to him. "You didn't know it was me."

He buried his face in his hands, and said, "oh Arceus. Oh Arceus what did I do?"

I moved to sit next to him and gave him a tight hug, being careful of my chest spike, and said, "please, daddy. Let's not worry about it. You didn't know it was me. You were protecting your home like you should have."

He straightened slightly, taking his hands off his face, and grabbed my paw with shaking hands.

"Please forgive me," he said with tears running down his face. I had never seen my father cry before and the sight made me react by pulling him into another hug as I said, "there's nothing to forgive. But don't worry, you are forgiven."

He returned the hug and we stayed like that for a few minutes until his grip loosened and I took my original seat. He excused himself to go calm down and left the room.

Once he did, my mom said with an embarrassed expression to Hannah, "I'm sorry about that."

Hannah waved her hand with an understanding smile.

"It's alright. You have nothing to apologize for."

She nodded and we got back to the topic. We told her how I had accidentally partially transformed Alex and gave him Lucario ears. Once we explained our theory behind the transformations, my mom asked, "do you have any idea how to turn you back human. I mean. Unless you want to stay a Pokemon?"

I shook my head no.

"While it's interesting, being a Lucario I mean. I would really rather be human. And to answer your first question, Jacob is somewhere seeing if Alex can be turned back normal. I'm waiting to hear from him to see if it worked. If it did, then we'll try the same thing with me."

My mom developed a worried expression and said, "didn't you say that it didn't work on Jacob? What if it doesn't work with you?"

I shrugged and said in a level tone, "we'll figure that out when the time comes. IF, the time comes. So let's not worry about it until we have to."

She frowned, but nodded.

"Just- just be careful, please," my dad says from where he appeared in the entrance of the room. His voice was quieter than normal. I could feel the hesitation behind his words. He was speaking as though standing on the thinnest ice and the slightest misstep would plunge him to an icy doom.

I went to him and gave him a hug, whispering to him, "don't worry. I'll be careful."

He hugged me back, and we let each other go a few moments after that.

My parents spoke with Hannah as I went to my room and grabbed a my own hoodie and a few pairs of sweatpants that I could wear instead of borrowing Hannah's or Jacob's. I also grabbed my own phone and charger, having promised to give them updates on the situation every few hours or so. I packed these items along with some others in a medium sized duffle bag.

I had worried about them not wanting me to sleep over at my boyfriend's house, but they apparently trusted me enough to not bring it up. That. Or maybe it just plain slipped their minds. I decided to believe the first option.

Once making sure I had everything I needed, I went back to the living room to see Hannah and my mom laughing while my dad wore a grin.

"What's so funny?", I asked, and just like that, their faces froze.

My eyes narrowed and I said, "were you talking about me?"

My mom answered with, "nope!", too quickly to be natural.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I've got everything I'll need."

Hannah nodded and said, "I'll wait for you outside."

She went outside and my parent took a moment to give me a peck on the cheek each and made me renew my promises to keep them updated and to be careful. You know, the usual loving parent stuff.

After this was done, I headed outside and joined Hannah in the vehicle and we made our way back to Jacob's house.

* * *

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please review and tell me what you thought of it, what I need to improve on, or any suggestions you would like to give me. To those who have requested the appearance of Pokemon, if I haven't put yours in yet, I promise I'll do my best to fit them in the next chapter I write.

Also, I know I don't do this often, but I would like to give thanks to Jack Storm 448. After reading and reviewing on his amazing FanFiction, (details below), he gave me several great suggestions that will help me tremendously when I go back and (eventually) fix up the mistakes in Curse of the Lucario. I would strongly suggest checking out his story; Rising Storm: Book 1. It is, quite frankly, on my Top 10 Pokemon FanFictions list. If you do check out his story, please drop him a review or two as you read. (You can find it under my favorites on my profile.)

Rising Storm: Book 1

When you're Jack Storm, a boy raised by a family of Lucario, and blessed with Pokémon-like abilities, the world is a dangerous place. But that isn't going to stop him from exploring it; on the way, he'll meet lots of new friends, and more than a few enemies. Special thanks to OseanSoldier, Matthais Unidostres, and Imperator Justinian for their continued support.

Trust me when I say that it is a very good read.

Talkingbirdguy out.


	8. A Lost Shinx

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 8

Sorry everyone for taking an unholy amount of time to get this chapter out. I've just been busy with my other fics and... stuff.

I would like to dedicate this chapter, however short it may be, to my friend Darion. Darion passed away in a bad vehicle crash a few days ago. While I haven't spoken to her in awhile, we used to be pretty good friends. I hope she's in a more pleasant place.

Now, I'm sorry for all this heavy stuff. You didn't come here for that. Please enjoy the fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Chapter 8

The Lost Shinx

* * *

JACOB'S POV

"C'mon Jacob, wake up."

I felt a hand, scratch that, a paw shake my shoulder and I opened my eyes with a groan.

"Ugh. Couldn't I have slept longer", I complained as I blinked repeatedly to force my mind to wake back up.

Narri snorted and leaned in so he could whisper in my ear, "trust me. I would've let you sleep all day. But Pip made me wake you up."

I snorted and stretched my muscles, which were totally relaxed thanks to the hot spring, but still ached a little. Then I followed Narri out of the steaming water and he taught me how to use aura to dry off instead of waiting for it to dry naturally. When I attempted it, I succeeded on my first attempt, and also knocked Narri down due to having little control over it.

After helping him back up and apologising, I noticed that the others were not there.

"Where's the others?", I asked as we started walking back to the village.

"They left a little while ago. Luna is taking Alex back to your truck. Pip went home. You should probably get moving so Alex doesn't wait long."

I nodded and said, "okay. Tell Pip thanks again for me, please?"

"Sure. Now you better be moving."

"Yeah, see you later Narri," I said and began to run to the entrance of the village. I slowed down enough to not run into the guards, then continued on my way. About halfway to my truck, as I was going around a curve in the path, I noticed a blue and yellow ball of fur on the side of the path, slightly hidden behind some bushes. I slowed down and walked to the side of the path. When I got closer, I saw that it was a young Shinx that was curled up into a ball.

My eyes widened when I saw that the little electric type was covered in some pretty nasty bruises and I immediately knelt down beside it and began to try to determine what had caused the bruising. When I got closer, the Shinx opened its eyes and tried to jump to its feet, only to fall back down with a cry of pain.

"Please stop moving. I'm not going to hurt you," I said in a calming tone, trying not to scare the obviously terrified Pokemon.

Despite my words, the Shinx began shaking in fear and I noticed something out of the corner of my eyes.

"Just wait right there for a second," I said as I slowly got up and walked over to the bush that was bursting with ripe Oran berries.

I picked a few before slowly walking back to the Shinx and laying the berries next to it.

"Here. Eat these. They should make you feel better."

I took a few steps back and sat on the ground, but the Shinx made no move to eat. I sighed and grabbed another berry from the bush.

I made sure the Shinx was looking as I took a big bite out of the blue berry.

After swallowing the, I said, "see? They won't harm you."

I picked a few more berries before taking a seat a little ways away from it.

I ate two more berries before the Shinx finally took a bite out of one of the berries, and promptly began to devour the rest of the berries in front of it with great relish.

Once the Shinx was done, I heard him (for it was a boys tone) say, "thanks for those."

I smiled and said, "it's no problem. How are you feeling?"

He looked at himself for a second before answering with a, "a little better. But my leg still hurts a little."

"Do you mind if I take a look at it? I might be able to help."

He hesitated, but nodded.

I scooted closer and asked, "where is the pain located?"

He twitched his left hind leg and winced.

"That one."

I nodded and took a closer look. I determined that it was not broken. Just pretty bruised.

I leaned back from my examination and said, "it doesn't look too bad. You will just need to stay off of it for two days or so until it stops hurting." I silently thanked my dad for all of his medical lessons he had taught me. While neither of us would be considered professionals in any way, we both knew more about caring for injured Pokemon more than most of the populace.

The Shinx gave a small smile and nodded.

"Is anywhere else hurting too much?"

He shook his head and said, "no. Those berries really helped."

"That's good. Now can you tell me how exactly you ended up like this?"

He flinched, probably from the memory of what happened to him, or from the pain.

He stared at the ground and said, "I got lost and a bunch of mean Mankey attacked me after I tried to eat some berries I had found on the ground. I said I was sorry, but they wouldn't listen and I tried to run away." He began tearing up and I gently picked him up and held him against my chest, being careful of my spike, and said, "Shhh, it's okay. There's nothing to worry about now. How about this? Why don't I help you get back to where you need to go? Would you like that?"

I made sure to speak in the most reassuring tone possible and was careful not to squeeze too hard to aggravate his injuries. He began crying quietly in my fur and I gave him some time to let it all out.

After a little while, he calmed down enough to say, "would you really?"

I smiled, patted his head and said, "it's a promise."

He smiled and dried his eyes with his paw. A second later, we both turned to the sound of footsteps heading towards us. A second later, Luna appeared and stopped in surprise.

"Hey Luna," I said as I stood up, being careful not to jar the Shinx too much, "I found this little guy just a minute ago. I'm going to help him find his way home. Do you mind telling Alex?"

Luna blinked before nodding and saying, "sure. I'll ask him to text your mom and tell her of this new development. Oh, and did we ever tell my parents about your Dad?"

I froze, and would have facepawed if I did not have the Shinx in my arms. To replace the facepaw, I groaned and said in a pleading tone, "umm. Mind telling them? I'm pretty sure they're going to kill me for forgetting to tell them about, well, that." I made sure not to go into too much detail. I wanted to avoid upsetting Shinx in any way possible.

Luna gave me a pained look before saying, "well my dad said to come home after escorting Alex to your truck, so I'll tell them when I get home. I just pray you're out of the Sanctuary at that point."

I shivered at what Narri and Pip would do to me the next time they came face to face with me and vowed to do my best to not let it happen anytime soon.

I gulped and nodded. "Thanks. I owe you one-"

"Three, you owe me three," She interrupted me and I nodded.

"Fine. Three. I'll see you later."

She waved her paw before turning back the way she had come and moving away.

Once she was gone, I looked down at the silent Shinx and asked, "so which way do you think is your home?"

He shook his head and said, "I don't know. I don't recognize anything around here. I can't remember which way I came from when I was running away."

I frowned but patted the electric type on his head.

"That's alright. What kind of features can you remember that are around your home? Any valleys or big hills?"

He looked down for a moment before looking back up and saying, "I remember this really big tree that has this really big scar from a lightning strike on it. It's on the top of a big hill and is pretty close to our cave."

I closed my eyes and visualized a picture of the Sanctuary in my head. I discarded the possibility of him living in the small canyon, due to there being all kinds of ground types that didn't care much for electric types. I though about a large lake that was home to many varieties of water Pokemon, but discarded that as well when I remembered that there were no big hills around there.

I continued to consider and discard possible places until I narrowed it down to a single rather large area that was about two or three miles away from where we were right then. That area of the Sanctuary was inhabited by many different kinds of types and had a good deal of hills and caves.

I opened my eyes and said, "I think I remember a place that has a tree on a hill like you describe."

The Shinx perked up and said, "really? Can we go now?"

I nodded and began walking in the direction that I had determined a few moments earlier. I positioned him on my shoulder so I would have a paw free to move branches out of the way and to help me keep my balance.

While I was careful not to bounce him too much, I kept up a nice pace that ate up the distance between us and our destination rather quickly.

When we stopped at a shallow stream with a clearing around it for a quick drink, Shinx looked around and said, "I think this is familiar. I've been here before, I think."

I smiled and said, "that's good. That must mean we are getting closer to your home." I knew that young Pokemon like him would not be allowed to roam very far from their home, so if something looked familiar to him, then it would near where he lives.

He nodded and drank some of the water. I knelt down and used my paws to bring the water to my mouth.

After I did this a few more times, I heard a growl from my left and saw a very annoyed Manectric growling a few yards away from me.

"This is my territory! Get out!" He snarled at me while falling into an attacking stance.

I stood and put my paws up.

"Okay, okay. We're sorry for the trouble. We'll leave now," I said as I slowly backed up, paws still raised in a non-aggressive manner.

"Who else is with you?", the angry electric type asked before noticing Shinx right behind me.

"You! I've told you to stay away from here!"

Before I could say or do anything else, the pissed off Pokemon raced towards me with flames trickling out from behind his clenched teeth.

I immediately snatched Shinx into my arms and jumped backwards to avoid the fire fang.

"Hey! We're leaving! What's the big deal?", I shouted while keeping my distance.

"That brat needs to learn a lesson! I've told him to stay away from here before!"

The Manectric let off a thunder wave and I leapt to the right to try and avoid it. I hid behind a tree to avoid another thunder wave. Unfortunately, my left arm was grazed by the first attack and began to sting as the electric energy forced my muscles to clench painfully and make it near to move properly.

I let it drop to my side before I set Shinx down and said, "stay right here. I'll call you when it's okay to come out."

He nodded and I readied an aura sphere with my good paw before sprinting out from behind the tree and directly at the Manectric.

He hesitated, not expecting a frontal assault, and that allowed me enough time to fire off the aura sphere. The moment I launched the attack, my arm seized up and I thought I could see some sparks of electricity travel over my fur. Due to this, my aim was messed up and the aura sphere flew a few yards above his head. And, as a bonus, I stumbled from the pain and was barely able to keep my balance.

Before I could recover, he rushed forward in a burst of speed that I recognized as a quick attack and I was unable to avoid the impact. As a result, I flew backwards several yards and landed on my back.

My arm finally stopped clenching up and I was able to get up at the last second to block his bite attack from ripping out my throat. While this did succeed in saving my neck, literally, my left arm wasn't as lucky and it felt as though Lucy had used Inferno on it at point blank.

I grit my teeth from the pain and said, "gotcha."

I then slammed an aura sphere into him, forcing him off of my arm and flying back into the stream.

I waited a second to catch my breath and saw him crawl out of the water and, after giving me a glare, stumbled away to tend to his wounds.

When I was sure he wasn't coming back, I let myself lay flat on the ground and I groaned.

"Are you okay?"

I turned my head to see the Shinx standing next to me with a worried look.

I waved my right arm (the one that wasn't hurting) and said, "just tired. I don't really fight that much and I need a second before we start again."

"I saw some berries over there. Do you want me to get you some?"

I smiled and nodded.

When he ran to get the berries, I dropped the smile and grimaced. After doing a very thorough diagnostic scan of my injured arm, I made an incredibly scientific conclusion that would put medical professionals to shame.

"This is going to hurt tomorrow," I muttered and winced as the adrenalin rush faded and I felt the place he bit ache even more.

I saw that his bite had broken the skin and that I had some blood on my fur. I forced myself over to the stream and washed the blood from my fur. Upon taking a closer glance at my bite wound, I saw that the individual punctures were already healing up. Not super fast or anything. But they were no longer letting out blood and hurting as badly as they had been a little while before. While I knew Lucario, and Pokemon in general, healed pretty quickly, I was surprised at the rate I was getting better.

I guess my overwhelming amount of aura helped my bodies natural healing abilities. Now that I think about it, my dad hardly ever got sick. And whenever he got cut, it healed much faster than normal. I forced myself to stop thinking too much about it and instead just decided to be thankful for it.

I heard Shinx and turned around as he approached with three berries balanced on his back.

"These were all that I could find."

He dropped them next to me and I grabbed two and pushed one closer to him.

"Here. You need to eat one too. You're still healing."

I thought he would protest, and he looked like he was going to, but he just started eating when I gave him a semi-stern look.

After we finished those off, I put him back on my right shoulder and continued in the direction we were headed before. While I moved at a slightly slower pace, we still moved quickly.

As I was climbing over a fallen tree, Shinx piped up and said, "I know this place! I live just that way!" He extended one of his paws in a direction and I smiled in relief before heading in the direction he indicated.

It was when I was about to enter this patch of bushes that two large blurs burst forth, moving too quickly for me to react. The smaller blur flew over my right shoulder and snatched Shinx off as it went past me. The larger blur, only a second behind the first, barreled into my chest and slammed me to the ground.

The air was knocked out of my lungs and I couldn't stop the figure, which I saw was a female Luxray, from pouncing on my chest, pinning my arms to the ground, and snarling right in my face.

"Wait! He helped me!" Shinx's words rang out and the Luxray hesitated.

I managed to wheeze out, "he was lost," before coughing a few times in an attempt to get air back in my depleted lungs.

"Please don't hurt him!"

The Luxray thought for a moment before relenting.

I sat up and focused on getting my breath back.

Once I could breath semi-normally, I turned around to see Shinx's mother inspecting him while a Luxio, probably Shinx's brother, watched me with a glare.

"I don't think his leg is broken, just bruised," I said when I saw the Luxray looking at his injured leg.

She paused and turned to me.

"Thank you for bringing him home and keeping him safe. I am sorry for attacking you without warning."

I waved my paw and said, "you were just doing your job as a mother. You are forgiven."

She nodded and picked up Shinx by the scruff of his neck before taking him into a cave that was hidden by some bushes and coming back out.

I stood up and said, "I've got to be going now. Hope Shinx feels better soon."

Luxio turned away and walked into the cave without a word while she said, "thank you again. I was so worried that something bad had happened to him. If you ever need a favor when you're around here, just ask and I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, I'll do that if I'm around. See you later," I said as I turned in the direction I needed to go and began running.

About a half hour later, I hopped in my truck and Alex woke up from his nap.

"Well that took awhile," he commented while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

I started up the truck and pulled out of the place I was parked.

"Sorry. Had a run in with a territorial Manectric and that ate up some time. Has my mom tried to call or text you?"

He checked his phone and nodded.

"Yup. She texted me about ten minutes ago. I'll tell her we're headed back now."

"Ask how the talk with Andrea's parents went", I requested, feeling nervous about the answer and I prayed for the best.

He nodded and spent a minute typing away before sending the message.

Another minute later, he read aloud, "it went alright. Were you able to fix Alex's "Problem"?"

I snorted as Alex rolled his eyes and said, "the way they put emphasis on it makes it seem like I have some sort of rash."

He sent back that we had managed to get rid of his Lucario ears and that he was fully human again.

He read aloud the text he got a second later, "(this is Andrea Jacob's mom is driving). Okay. Your mom said to head back home. We'll decided what to do from there."

"Tell them that we're on our way now."

LINE BREAK

We, somehow, arrived home before my mom and Andrea and watched TV as we waited for them to get there. (I threw on some shorts after remembering Andrea's request before sitting down.)

Alex had the remote and I was about to snatch it from him due to his irritating habit of channel surfing.

Right before I did, he flipped it to a news station and the familiar news reporter continued what he was saying before we landed on the channel.

"-Jacob Simmons, the son of the famous Jason Simmons, has followed in his father's footsteps and-", Alex flipped the channel and I yelled, "turn it back!"

He jumped and rolled his eyes before hitting the button.

"It has been confirmed by eyewitnesses that he transformed while out at a local restaurant. And when reporters went to the Simmons household to question whether or not the reports were true, this is what happened." He paused as the screen went black for a second before being replaced with what was obviously someone holding a video camera. What confused me is that it was a little below the height you would expect it to be at. And I didn't remember a camera being there at that time?

A familiar voice that made me grit my teeth came from the camera, "reporter John Pitts at the Simmons household where I have come in touch with the son of the legendary once Lucario, Jason Simmons. Jacob here has agreed to answer a few questions."

"That worthless-", I then let out a stream of vile curses aimed at that irritating reporter that, if the man could hear me, would probably be cringing at the sheer vocabulary involved in the insults.

I cooled down enough to hear my own voice come through with, "Leave." I cheered at my past self's cold tone and said, "you rule, past Me!"

Alex snorted at my behavior and said, "narcissistic much?"

I ignored him as the TV switched back to the familiar reporter and he said, "our on-scene reporter was unable to get anything else out of the Lucario who claimed to be Mr Simmons as he asked other reporters who arrived shortly afterwards to vacate the property."

I bristled at his "claimed to be" statement, while Alex snorted at all the details the guy was leaving out. I calmed myself down, slightly grateful that they hadn't shown me threatening all the reporters with my aura sphere.

I heard the front door open and I sat down and pretended to be calm before my mom and Andrea could see me angrily glaring at the TV. They walked in and Andrea immediately ran over to Alex and began investigating the top of his head as we all watched in confused silence.

A moment later, Alex asked what we were all thinking, "what are you doing?"

"Making sure there's no trace left," she said as she moved his hair out of the way and inspected his scalp closely.

"And?", I asked.

She let go of his head and said, "I can't find any sign of a nub."

I grinned and said, "hear that, Alex? You're nub-less."

He snorted and straightened his hair.

My mom smiled and said, "so you managed to get the transforming aura out of him without a hitch?"

My grin was replaced with a grimace while Alex gave an amused snort.

My mom's eyebrow raised and I went ahead and answered her upcoming question.

"Well, the aura that I got back from Alex didn't exactly sit well with the rest of my body. It was too different from my own aura after being a part of him for that long. So when Pip tried to transfer it back into my body, my body's aura did not just absorb it into my body like we expected it to..."

"And?", my mom said, giving me That Look™ (yes, it deserves to be capitalized and everything).

I held in a flinch at her gaze and said, "uh, well-"

"He basically got high off of it," Alex said and my mom's eyes widened.

"No! It's not like that! The aura couldn't go anywhere else, so it started affecting my muscles and gave me an energy boost."

"Like steroids?", Andrea suggested and I facepawed.

"Noooo," I moaned into my paws, "it's not like drugs. C'mon Alex, help me out here!"

Alex simply grinned and said, "hey, I'm not the one who went temporarily crazy cause he put something in his body."

I glared at him and my mom said, "alright you two. Enough. Do you think Pip will be able to turn Andrea back into a human?"

I turned to her and said, "I think so. I just hope Pip figures out a different method than what she did with Alex. I'm not sure my body would be able to take that much aura at once without something getting hurt."

I could see Andrea biting her lip and indecision in her eyes.

I patted her on the arm and said, "don't worry about it. Pip will figure out some way for us to get the aura out of your body and turn you back into a human. She'll find a way to make sure none of us get hurt."

Andrea nodded, but still had a worried expression.

I heard a buzz come from Alex and he checked his phone and winced.

"Gotta go?", I asked.

"Yeah. My mom says it's time for supper and to get my tail over there."

I started laughing at his choice of words and Alex started chuckling after he looked back at what he said.

He headed for the door, and waved goodbye to us while still grinning.

Once he left, and I stopped laughing, my mom said, "who wants to take a shower first while I start making supper?"

I started to say that Andrea could go first, but she spoke before I could.

"I'll help you make it. You can go first."

Instead of protesting, because I knew it would be useless, I nodded and headed upstairs.

I grabbed a clean pair of shorts and took a fast shower before heading back downstairs. The moment I hit the bottom step, my mouth started watering at the scent that hit my nostrils and I could feel my tail move back and forth slightly without my conscious consent. While Lucario tails do wag a little when a Lucario is happy, it does not fly all over the place like a Growlithe's tail does when one is excited.

I made my way to the kitchen, where the smell was coming from, and didn't even bother to question what the small block-like things were before I tossed a few into my mouth. The small block had an odd mix of spicy and sweet that blended together into a wonderful creation.

I enjoyed the glorious taste of the unknown delicacy before noticing my mom and Andrea standing there with two different expressions.

My mom had a smile that she was trying, and failing, to restrain. And Andrea had a grossed out expression, like I was eating something not fit for consumption.

Wait...

"Please tell me these are not Poke-treats," I said before taking a closer look at the plate the delicious blocks sat on, steaming slightly from their recent exposure to the oven.

"Alright, we won't tell you," my mom said while "accidentally" nudging the box that the Poke-treats mix had come in.

I paused to think for a moment before saying, "do we have any of the mix that Luna likes so much?"

"You're not serious, are you?" Andrea gave me a Look (not The Look™, that is for mothers only. This was the less scathing, but still deadly, girlfriend variety).

I flinched and said, "I mean... uh..."

My mom made a lashing motion with her hand and a "whipping" sound. And she mouthed, "whipped already and not even married."

I blushed under my fur and glared at my mom while Andrea glared at me.

Lucy walked in and said, "so are you going to hand those over or do I have to climb up there?"

My mom looked at me for an explanation and I said, "Lucy wants her treats."

Lucy nodded and I thought I could see a little bit of drool coming from her mouth. Before, when I had seen the expression, I had thought she had been exaggerating. But then I found myself nearly drooling over the smell of the treats just like her.

Eventually, the two of them managed to snatch my attention away from the Poke-treats and forced me to focus on the chile that they had made.

Lucy kept on taunting me by eating those glorious block shaped pieces of bliss slowly and while I watched. If my girlfriend and mom hadn't been there, I probably would've whimpered.

As it was, I ate quickly, and helped clean the dishes when everyone was finished. (Andrea took pains to grab Lucy's dish before I could and washed it herself. If she hadn't, I probably would have spent awhile looking for unclaimed crumbs.)

Once the kitchen was cleaned up, I kissed my mom goodnight. Then, once my mom left the room, I stole a kiss from Andrea before heading upstairs to my room.

I quickly undressed and turned out the light before making my mind relax and letting sleep claim me.

* * *

JASON'S POV

I blinked a few times, letting my eyes get used to being open before sitting up slowly and reaching down automatically and grabbing the food that laid there. Every movement I made was slow. I was unable to go any faster. My body didn't allow me to move very quickly with the lack of movement and the draining it had to endure for so long.

As I chewed, I checked the tiny space in my mind that I had been storing aura. I put a tiny bit more into the space and decided that it was time to put my plan into action.

I laid back down after feeling the draining affects of the room increase again, and sent a command to the stored aura before falling back unconscious.

I opened my eyes again. But this time, it wasn't to the room of constant drain that I had grown so used to seeing. Now, it looked as though I was in a universe of perpetual darkness. I looked down at myself to see my regular, human, body wreathed in blue flames that flickered with my heartbeat.

I felt disappointed at the lack of detail in the tiny world I had created in my head, but shoved it to the side before throwing out a mental lasso.

Slowly, a prone figure came into being in front of me and I silently cursed when I saw that it was a Lucario. Not who I was looking for.

Before I could try and pull in Jacob, who is the one I was trying to bring the first time, the Lucario woke up and jumped to his feet.

"Sorry, but can you stay quiet while I bring my son here. I can't hold this connection for-"

"Dad!?", I froze when the Lucario shouted that and focused on the shocked Pokemon.

"Jacob!?"

The Lucario, aka Jacob, closed his open mouth and said, "how in the world are you in my head? Are we really talking?"

I snapped out of my shock and said, "yes. And I can't hold this for very long so I'll give you the short version. Make sure you contact Rick and tell him this when you wake up."

I waited for him to nod before saying, "a group of people called Team Phoenix has taken me and is stealing the aura from my body. They are taking it slowly, so I'll be kept alive for awhile until they take all they want. For whatever reason, I have less aura then I did all those years before when Team Styx tried to take my aura. Because of this, they are taking much less aura than they expected and their plans will be slowed down. I have transformed into a Lucario, again. And I will be unable to communicate again due to being forced into a coma once the aura I had managed to store up runs out."

Jacob, thankfully, did not ask questions and just nodded as I told him everything.

"Now, how in the world did you turn into a Lucario? You Copycat."

He rolled his eyes and began to speak, but I felt the aura I had stored up begin to get very low and said, "never mind. Give me a second."

I reached forward and touched his head. I spent only a couple seconds viewing his most recent memories over the last few days before breaking contact and whistling.

"Dang! You and your girlfriend? Wow."

He blinked, understanding that I had gone through his memories, then said, "yeah. Now is there anything I can do to help you? Aside from telling Rick all that you've told me."

I shook my head and said in a serious tone, "Jacob, I want you to stay away from Team Phoenix. Don't do anything to catch their attention. Heck, if you hadn't already been exposed to the world, I would ask for you to hide in the house 24/7. But since the world already knows about you, this is what I want you to do. I want you to allow yourself to be caught in a pokeball-"

"But-", he protested, but I cut him off.

"No. You are going to let Alex or your mom catch you in a pokeball, so you will be unable to be caught by anybody else. Just lock the pokeball in a safe place when you go out in public so you don't have to worry about being caught by a hotshot trainer. I would suggest your girlfriend to do the same, but that's her choice."

I felt the last bit of the aura about to be used up, so I quickly said, "I'm about to lose the connection. Since I know you're exactly like I used to be and will probably go looking for them yourself," he had the decency to look a little mareepish at this, "I'm going to give you a little help in boosting your skill set."

Instead of explaining, I just put my flaming head against his and let loose a concentrated flood of memories and ideals into his mind. Once I was finished, I stepped back and said, "I put a tiny bit of my own aura in with those memories. When you are trying out those moves and techniques, listen to the small voice in your head. That would be me trying to help you out. Oh, and tell your mom to please take care of herself and that I'll be fine. And anything else you can come up with that sounds nice and reassuring."

Before he could even snort in amusement, he vanished and I felt the flames around my body begin to flicker slower and slower. Eventually, the flames stopped moving around my body and I felt it begin to harden into what looked like a blue crystal. As my body became surrounded my the crystal, I felt my mind shutting down and everything became more and more sluggish. I knew that it was all up to someone else to save me.

I just hoped that it would not end in a giant explosion, like last time.

* * *

Yes, I was picturing Sir Aaron in the crystal when I wrote this last part. I couldn't resist. Now, I would like to ask you, the readers, a very important question. Who is your favorite character in this series? Any character from both Curse of the Lucario and Return of the Cursed Gift. I'm just curious if who is the most popular of my creations. So please leave it along with a review of how you liked this chapter. (And I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have via a PM if you have any.)

Also, I FINALLY got that Luxio into the story. Sorry for taking so long. I'll be trying to bring in the other requests in when I can.

So yeah, please review. I promise not to take so flipping long with the next chapter. Talkingbirdguy, (feeling really tired cause it is getting late here and I gotta get up early tomorrow), out!


	9. Things get territorial

The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 9

I want to say thanks to everyone for their condolences. It is very helpful to see those. Also, thanks to all who left reviews.

I'm happy to post what is easily my longest chapter thus far. I think that it comes out to a little over eight thousand words. I hope you enjoy :).

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

Things get territorial

Chapter 9

* * *

JACOB'S POV

"-anything else you can come up with that sounds nice and reassuring." I was about to laugh at my dad's words, but then I felt something seem to rip my entire form from the dark place I was standing and my eyes flew open to the sight of my bedroom's ceiling. I blinked a few times from surprise at the sight of sunlight streaming through my blinds. It had felt like I had closed my eyes for a few minutes as opposed to about seven hours ago.

I thought about the dream(?) I had and immediately shot to my feet and ran downstairs to my parents bedroom.

Even with the incredibly important information that my mom would want to know ASAP, I still hesitated when I raised my paw to knock. There is one major rule when waking up my mom in the morning; Don't. Not unless you wish to raise her grumpy wrath.

I stood there, frozen with indecision until I finally knocked gently and prayed for the best.

"Yes?", a groggy sounding voice answered from the other side.

"Mom, it's Jacob. I think you need to know something."

"Come in."

I opened the door and stood there awkwardly as she sat up in the bed and wiped some of the sleep from her hair.

"What is it? Anything wrong?"

I shook my head, then paused, before saying, "well last night, when I went to bed, I think dad made contact with me via a dream."

She froze in the middle of a yawn and her hand came down to rest beside her. She was fully awake as she said, "are you sure? What did he say?"

I told her everything that dad had told me, but held back his suggestion of capturing me in a pokeball. I would bring it up, just not right then.

When I finished, she got out of bed and, faster than any time I've ever seen her move without the assistance of coffee, she walked out of the door and said, "let's call Rick. This might help in the search."

I followed behind her as she grabbed her cell phone and entered in a number as she sat down on the couch in the living room. I sat next to her and waited silently as she waited for Rick to pick up.

"Hello? Rick here."

"Hey, Rick. It's Hannah. I think we have something that you'll want to know about Jason. I'm giving the phone to Jacob."

She passed it to me and I said, "hey Rick."

"Hey. Okay, now what is it? Tell me everything."

I repeated everything I had told my mom a little earlier and he listened, not speaking the entire time until I finished.

"And he said he'll be going into a coma after his stored up aura ran out, right?"

"Yeah. That's what he said to me."

"Hmm. Okay. Thank you for telling me this. This might help a great deal. If anything like this happens again, please call. And remember, I want you to stay safe. Don't take unnecessary risks. I'll keep you updated on any new developments."

"Thanks. And I'll be careful."

He hung up and I gave my mom her phone back.

"Anything wrong?", We turned to see Andrea standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"My dad communicated to me via a dream last night. I just told Rick about it."

Her eyes widened and she said, "anything happen?"

I told her the more important details, getting a little tired of repeating myself over and over.

When I got done, I stood up and her eyes widened a bit more before she turned her head with an embarrassed look on her face.

I mentally hit myself when I saw that I was not wearing anything. I was too distracted to remember my promise to her.

"Sorry, I'll go put on some pants." I tried to scoot by her on the stairs without getting too close and I heard my mom stifle a laugh. I went upstairs and put on a pair of shorts before heading back downstairs and helping my mom prepare breakfast while Andrea got a shower.

Later, while we were eating, Andrea asked, "so will we be going to The Sanctuary soon?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. Right after breakfast. Are you going to come?", I directed the question to my mom, who shook her head.

"Sorry, I've got some errands to run. Just make sure to keep me updated on everything."

I promised that I would, and as I stood up to put my dishes in the sink, I knocked over an empty cup and my paw shot out automatically to try to catch it. My mom did the same thing as I did it, and before I could pull back, my hand spike scratched her across the arm.

There was a moment of tense silence before I sighed in relief and said, "sorry, mom. But at least Pip's barrier is holding. You can't feel anything weird, can you?"

She shook her head and wiped away the tiny bit of blood that started welling up from the scratch.

"It's okay. I'll just go put a band-aid on it. You two can head over to The Sanctuary. I'll take care of the dishes."

Andrea finished a second later and we both got in my truck and I drove us to The Sanctuary without anything big happening.

As I pulled into my usual spot, I saw Luna stand up from a spot she had been sitting at under a tree.

She came closer as we got out and she said, "you better be ready for the scolding of your life."

I grinned and waved a finger.

"Nope, I get the time honored, "guest is with me", privilege. Any and all scolding is held off until said guest is not around."

Andrea walked around the truck and said, "are you taking advantage of me being with you to avoid punishment?"

"Nope/yes he is," me and Luna answered at the same time and I glared at her as she smiled wickedly at me.

Andrea just rolled her eyes and said, "I feel so loved. Now which way do we go?"

"This way-", I started, but Luna stopped me.

"Um, Jacob. You know the rules. Did you tell Andrea?"

I flinched when I saw her staring pointedly at my shorts.

"What does she mean?", Andrea asked, clueless.

Luna turned to her and said, "Lucario are not allowed to wear clothing within the village."

I flinched internally at her blunt way of putting it, and Andrea got a wide-eyed look.

"But, when I turn back human, I'll have no clothes with me!"

I blushed at the mental image and made a point not to look at Andrea until I banished the image from my head.

"Jacob's dad has a few pairs of clothes you can borrow at our house. Don't worry. There are plenty of female Lucario around. Another won't catch any more attention than normal. Hopefully."

I thought she would put up more of a fight, but instead she just said, "Jacob, turn around."

I did so without question, despite the pointlessness of the gesture.

Luna turned as well and we waited until she sighed and said, "I'm done."

Luna went ahead and turned around while I turned slowly and kept my eyes looking elsewhere at all times.

"You might as well look. But thanks for trying," Andrea said in an embarrassed tone.

I stopped looking away so pointedly, but made sure not to stare. Andrea stood there awkwardly, arms crossed and with an expression that made me certain that she was blushing under her fur. Speaking from both experience and the fact she was my girlfriend, she was a very pretty Lucario. And yes, you can say that some Pokemon of the same species are better looking than another of the same species. Andrea was prettier than a good portion of the female Lucario population of the village.

I wondered idly if she was prettier than Luna, but I couldn't tell. Luna was basically a sister, so I couldn't compare her to someone else. Especially not my girlfriend.

"Well? Which way do we go?", Andrea asked and Luna began walking to the path towards the village.

I began walking and Andrea fell into step beside me.

We both sort of looked neither more towards nor away from each other more than necessary and we walked in a semi-awkward silence. Luna was leading us while me and Andrea were a few steps behind.

"Jacob, compliment her. She needs a little bit of positive reinforcement right now," Luna said to me via aura without looking at us.

Taking her advice to heart, I leaned down slightly and whispered, "for what it's worth, you're still beautiful."

She lowered her head slightly and I felt like she was blushing again.

"Thanks," she whispered back and her arms became uncrossed. I put my paw close to hers and she grabbed it and held on as we walked.

"Nice job," Luna said, still speaking via aura.

Purely on instinct, I responded with, "thanks."

I saw Luna jump slightly and she said, still using aura, "when did you learn to speak with aura?"

I blinked in surprise when I realized that the knowledge of how to respond with aura was in my head.

"It's a long story. Good news, I have some information about my dad that will appease your parents wrath."

I felt her curiosity through our mental link, but she said nothing more.

As we approached the guards, I felt Andrea get slightly behind me, like she was hiding.

Luna vouched for us and we walked into the village with no problems.

It was when we got a little ways into the village that the troubles began. The first time I came, I had felt the emotions of a bunch of jealous male Lucario who were pissed about me being with Luna. And then I came back, walking not only with Luna again, but with yet another female Lucario. And, thanks to my dad's knowledge of aura, I was picking up on everything they felt towards me. Thankfully, his knowledge also helped me to block out the emotions. So I didn't really feel them as keenly and it didn't bother me too badly.

As we were walking, Andrea walked close beside me, nearly pressed against my right arm.

When we got closer to Luna's home, I felt someone come up behind us and Andrea jumped while letting out a squeak of surprise when the person jumped at us and reached towards her. I didn't know what the person did at first, but when Andrea rubbed her rear and I saw that it was the Lucario that had issues with me, I connected the dots pretty fast.

"Who the heck do you think you are!?", I shouted at the smirking Lucario who was just slapped my girlfriends butt.

I stood in front of Andrea and took on an aggressive stance.

"I think I'm much more worthy than you to have either of these beauties," he leaned a little to the side to talk beyond me to Andrea, "now how about it? Would you like to be with a real Pokemon?"

Perhaps it was the regular instincts of a Pokemon, or maybe it was my own patience, probably a mixture of both, but when he said that. I snapped.

Without warning, I slammed a hastily created aura sphere directly into the disrespectful SOB's chest and sent him flying back.

I began to follow him, fully intent on kicking him while he was down for disrespecting her, but I felt a paw touch my arm before I could take a step.

I turned to see Andrea standing there with a worried expression and she said, "Jacob, that's enough. Let's just go before something else happens."

I battled with the desire to ignore her and go pound some respect into him, but instead I relaxed slightly and turned away from where the Lucario was starting to get back up.

Luna was standing a little ways ahead with arms crossed and wore a, "can we go now?", expression.

But then her expression changed and she yelled, "watch out!"

Acting purely on instinct, I pushed Andrea to the left just before an aura sphere impacted the ground at our feet.

I was knocked back about a yard and landed on my side with my eyes watering from some dust that was thrown into my eyes from the fall.

I felt, more than saw, the pissed off Lucario's presence getting closer. Using the knowledge my dad had transferred to me, I sent out my aura and "saw" him running at me with metal claws (the attack) extended from both paws, prepared to slice into me.

I sat up and feigned trying to clear my vision, waiting until he got closer to leap towards him with metal claws extended. Our attacks met and we stopped as both our momentum cancelled each other's out. With our claws locked and sparking at the contact, we both began pushing as hard as possible in order to overcome the other.

It wasn't obvious, but I knew that he was stronger than me. Not by much. But I could feel my arms begin to give little by little and I knew I wasn't going to win without doing something.

I was about to attempt to kick his feet out from under him, in an attempt to force him to the ground, when a familiar voice spoke to me in my head.

"Jacob. He's bolstering his muscles with aura. You need to do the same if you want to beat him. Simply imagine your body becoming infused with blue aura, then put a little pressure behind your natural aura like you want to create an aura sphere, and you'll feel the affects soon enough."

I nearly let myself be beat from the surprise of hearing my dad's advice in my head, but managed to not screw up. I began to imagine the all too familiar blue power pouring into my body and felt myself start to push the Lucario I was locked with back. As a bonus to still not being able to see due to the dust in my eyes, I saw my own body via using aura. (Aura vision is 360°, so I was able to see myself and any of my surroundings at any angle I chose.)

Luna was right when she said it was like looking at the sun! I had to look at it at the corner(?) of my eye(?) in order not to be blinded. Compared to my aura, the Lucario I was fighting was a lightbulb with insufficient power coming to it. Dim, and pulsing along with his heartbeat.

But back to the fight. Now that I saw how much aura was really at my disposal, I pushed a lot more power into my body and shoved the Lucario away from me, effectively breaking our Battle of Power.

I took a second to rub the sand from my eyes before opening them and raising my still extended claws in a, "want some more?", gesture.

He scowled as his claws faded and he replaced it by putting his clenched paws together and pulling them apart to bring a bone rush into being.

I could've probably beaten him using only metal claw. But that would serve to prove nothing.

I let my claws fade, and again using the knowledge my dad gave me, I created a staff of glowing blue aura just like his.

After a moment of tense inactivity where we silently glared at each other, I decided to start things off by using extremespeed. I used the attack to appear to the left of him and I swung the staff to my right. He barely blocked the attack aimed at his midsection and retaliated by throwing a force palm directly into my side.

The attack send me sliding back a few steps, but I kept standing.

"Why don't you just give up? We both know I'm stronger than you." Despite his words, he was breathing hard and a quick look at his aura told me that he was tiring.

"Yeah, not gonna happen. You're not about to take her from me!"

Fully intent on ending the fight, I ran towards him with my bone rush extended so that it pointed right at him.

He began to move, to dodge my seemingly stupid move, but I put my paw behind the staff and used force palm to send it flying at him.

He didn't stand a chance of dodging it. Most aura related objects dissipate after being separated from whoever created it, aura sphere being an obvious exception. So it's an understatement to say he wasn't expecting my bone rush to come flying at him at speeds fast enough to hear it cutting the air around it with a slight whistle.

It slammed into his chest, directly into his chest spike. (I saw the top half of his chest spike crack and disintegrate under the impact.) He continued flying backwards until his momentum was dropped painfully by slamming hard enough into a wall to leave a noticeable crack in the brick.

My bone rush disappeared with his impact and he collapsed to the ground, no longer able to stay conscious from the abuse his body endured.

Once I realized this, I got out of my battle stance and finally noticed the large crowd of Pokemon around me. They were all watching a good distance away in silence.

That is, until a few started cheering and then they all began to give different sounds and declarations of their enjoyment of the fight.

I just kinda stood there and, after getting over the surprise, waved and smiled at them. After a few more seconds of this, they all started to disperse, going their own ways.

I located where Andrea had been when I last saw her and walked to her.

She had a oddly teary expression and I asked, "I'm sorry. I just couldn't let him get away with being so rude to you."

She paused, and wiped at her eyes before giving me a hug and saying, "it's not that. I was just scared of you getting hurt. Don't scare me like that again!"

I returned her hug and said, "trust me. I'll try to avoid fights from now on."

As the hug went on, I saw a Lucario staring at us with a jealous look and I glared at him. He then decided that it was time to be somewhere else and that there were plenty of OTHER fish in the sea.

It felt good to be able to scare off anybody who wanted Andrea. Before I could fully enjoy this feeling, someone poked me in my side, directly where he had used force palm, and I hissed in pain when I felt it sting.

I let go of Andrea and turned to Luna with groan as I held the spot.

"That hurts," I said in a whiny tone, completely unlike my tone during the battle only a few minutes earlier.

Luna grinned and said, "I know. He got you good. But I think you got him a little better."

I snorted and looked over to where another Lucario was carrying away his still unconscious form. I saw how his chest spike was only about half the size it should have been and the surface of the once-spike was bumpy and rugged.

While the spikes on Lucario did grow back if broken or damaged, it took a long time. I judged that it would take his spike at least two or three months to get back to the way it was before I got to it.

I felt a sense of primal satisfaction at the sight of his unconscious form, and then I felt shock at the feeling. I had never really been much of a fighter as a human. I wasn't a pacifist by any means, but I never got much enjoyment out of fighting in any physical way unless it was a friendly fight where both sides were doing it just to test their skills and have a little fun. Serious fights, like the one I had just participated in? It would've left me with a sour feeling in my stomach.

"Jacob? Are you alright?" I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to Andrea.

"I'm okay. Let's just get to Pip and see if she can fix you up."

Andrea gave me a blank look before I saw realization come into her eyes and she went, "oh!"

I blinked and asked, "did you really forget why we came?"

She looked down and said, "just for a second."

I resisted the urge to laugh and instead said, "c'mon. Luna, you can lead the way."

Luna nodded and began to walk. I started to follow, but stumbled badly and nearly fell.

Andrea steadied me with her paw and said, "what's wrong?"

I felt the exhaustion crawl over me as the last of the adrenalin and the boosting aura left my system, leaving me weak and barely able to move.

Luna looked back at us and said, "you must be pretty tired. You'll probably need a hand walking after that battle."

She started to move forward and grab my left arm to help support me, but Andrea leaned forward aggressively and said, "I've got him."

I'm not sure who was more surprised. Me or Luna. But Luna back off and said, "okay, he's all yours."

Andrea got in a position where she bore some of my weight, making it somewhat easier to walk.

We then began walking to Luna's house, rather slowly because of me. I admit, we would have gone faster if Andrea had let Luna help me, but I wasn't about to suggest letting another female move onto her territory.

... wait. Her Territory? Me? Well, technically, I had sort of claimed her by winning the battle. Maybe the more primal parts of her being were simply saying, "he will care for you. Don't let anyone get a piece of that!" I wonder if it was wrong to feel so proud that she didn't want anybody moving in on me?

I shook the thoughts from my head and concentrated on walking.

We got to Luna's home and went inside to find Pip and Narri sitting around the table, glaring at me as we walked in. I suddenly felt a little better. Or at least better enough to stand up on my own without having Andrea support me. Perhaps it was the little voice (not my dad's) telling me to run that gave me the strength.

Thankfully, by the unspoken Law of the Host, the glares disappeared at the sight of the appointed Guest (Andrea).

"Hey Pip, Narri. This is Andrea," I decided to move things along, and hopefully distract them long enough for me to give my excuse.

Pip stood and said, "pleasure to meet you, Andrea. Please, have a seat so we can try to turn you back human."

Andrea sat in a chair that Pip pulled up and I said, "I hope you figured out another method than what we did last time?"

Pip nodded.

"Yes. I have another idea that will not require you to take the aura back into your body. I just need to examine Andrea before we try it. Sorry, but please go outside."

I nodded and headed outside. Before I could close the door behind me, I felt something block it, and turned with a rising sense of dread to see Narri standing behind me with a smile that was Too pleasant to be real.

"Hey Jacob, let's talk," Narri said as he pulled the door closed behind him.

I backed up a few steps and immediately said, "I know you're probably angry that I forgot to mention my dad-"

"Nope," he interrupted me and I stopped in surprise.

Then his expression turned angry and he said, "I'm pissed! How in Arceus' name could you forget to tell us something so important!"

I raised my paws and said, "well, I have some new information that might interest you."

He paused, then crossed his arms, waiting for me to talk.

I got right into it.

"My dad talked to me last night via a dream. He said," I then proceeded to tell him everything my dad had said, barring the pokeball suggestion. I still wasn't ready for that. I did tell him about how my dad transferred his skills to me.

When I finished, Narri had a worried expression and he asked, "and you're sure he said he turned into a Lucario, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but he was human in the dream. He was also covered in these blue flames that were kind of in the shape of a Lucario."

Narri nodded and said, "I hope that's enough. I think I may have something that could help you-"

"You can come back in now," Pip's voice came from inside and Narri stopped talking.

"Just show me later," I said as we walked back inside to see the three of them standing up heading our way.

I move back to get out of their way and Luna said, "we have to go to the training field for this. Mom said it aught to work better the more nature we're surrounded by."

I gave a questioning look to Pip, but she said, "it's complicated. I'll explain when we get there. How about you tell me how you got so beat up looking?"

I winced at the reminder of the pain I had temporarily forgotten.

"Lets just say that someone was rude to Andrea, and I couldn't forgive him for it. He's much worse off than I am." I had started out speaking in a serious tone, and finished with an quieter angry one.

I jumped when Andrea touched my arm and I noticed that my paws were clenched. I relaxed them and said, "sorry. Let's go and get you back normal."

Andrea held my paw as we started walking towards the training field.

Luna, Narri, and Pip walked in a loose line in front of us while Me and Andrea followed a little ways behind.

This time, as we walked through the village, I allowed myself to feel the collective emotions directed towards us, and more specifically, Andrea.

While the jealousy was still there, it was much less than before. Apparently most of of the males had gotten the unspoken message that I had sent out with my victory.

She's mine. Try and take her, and you're going to deal with me. Disrespect her, and only Arceus Himself can protect you from my wrath.

Most gave a little wistful look at Andrea before looking away. Some looked at her, noticed me, and suddenly had far more interesting things to look at. It felt good, knowing that no one was going to try for Andrea again. Getting beat up a little was well worth it when the end result was Andrea being left alone.

I saw the little signs that indicated communication via aura between Pip and Narri as we walked. (You have to watch their body language and a few other things to know if someone is being spoken to telepathically or in some other obscure method.) I assumed that he had told Pip about how I now had my father's abilities with aura, or at least the know-how, because she turned and gave me a look that seemed to study me for a few seconds.

"What does that mean?", Andrea asked as we walked down the street, pointing towards a store with a single picture of a necklace painted on its door.

"That place sells jewelry. You want to go inside and look?" Technically, the place sold stones that can enhance certain aspects of Pokemon, but some Pokemon enjoyed wearing them as jewelry. (No, they are not like drugs and have no known serious downsides to their usage.)

"If we're not in a rush," she said while looking at Pip and Narri for an answer.

Pip smiled and waved her paw.

"Go ahead. I'm going to go and test out the method we're going to try to use. Just come when you're finished."

We nodded our confirmation and Narri walked off with Pip while Luna headed to the store with us. She really wasn't much of a fan of wearing enhancements, but she liked to look occasionally.

I entered, hearing the familiar ring of the stores bell summon the owner of the store from the back room he always liked to nap in.

Bud, the friendliest Blaziken you will ever meet, came out from the back room with his signature smile. (What? You thought the whole village was 100% Lucario and Riolu? Nope.)

"Hiya there! Welcome to my shop. Are you looking for anything in particular, or just looking around?"

"Just looking around, thanks Bud."

Bud's smile faded and he said, "have we met before? I can't say I remember your face. Did you evolve recently?"

I chuckled and said, "it's me, Jacob. Long story. This is my girlfriend, Andrea."

Andrea nodded politely to Bud, and he lost his shocked expression in exchange for his pleasant smile as he nodded back to Andrea.

The shop displayed its wares in different ways. Some were in locked cabinets with glass to see the item without touching it. Others were sitting on open shelves with their names and affects written next to them.

All three of us sort of split up and began roaming the shop in different areas. I went and looked at the items on the shelves, curious as to what it would feel like to add their affects to my already almost overpowered system. I was particularly curious what an arm-band that was said to increase your aura storing abilities would do if I put it on. Probably be like, "nope, not even gonna try," and explode. Yes, some items have been known to explode. But that's rare.

When I was finished looking at them, and fantasizing about their possible affects, I walked to where Bud was sitting, polishing a small gem that I recognized as a fire stone.

"Have anything interesting to point out?" While just about everything he had was out in the open where people could see and look for themselves, Bud sometimes had items that he got and couldn't be sure what they were worth. So, until he decides on a price or finds out what it's worth, he usually keeps it in the back.

If you asked nicely, he might pull out one of those items and see if you know what it is or if you want to buy it.

He thought for a moment and put the fire stone down.

"I got something about a week ago. I have no clue what it's worth, but I'll let you have a look at it."

He walked into the back room and returned a minute later with a small ornate box.

He set the box down gently and opened it to show a small object wrapped up in a cloth. He removed the object and carefully unwrapped the cloth to show a rather dull dark-blue stone.

"I bought it off a Sableye who said it wasn't worth eating because it wasn't like any other stone he had found before and he said it tasted bad. I never heard of a Sableye not liking a stone of any kind just because it "tasted bad". So I bought it off of him for practically nothing. Do you know what it is?"

I looked closer at the stone. It was about the size of a golf ball, but it was in an oval shape instead of a spherical form. I couldn't see any scratches on its surface, despite the fact a Sableye, a species known well for their taste for rare rocks, had it within its grasp and ripe for the munching. It also wasn't bumpy, but smooth. Something that you do not see very often on stones that come straight from nature.

"Do you mind if I pick it up? I just want to see what it feels like."

"Just be careful, please."

I nodded and reached down to pick up the blue stone. The moment my paw touched the stone, it brightened and I snatched my paw back in surprise. It was now a much lighter color of blue than it was before I touched it.

"What did you do? It never did that when me or that Sableye touched it." Bud looked at the stone warily as he poked it, to find the stone not change a bit at his touch.

"I didn't do anything. It just did that on its own."

Bud picked the stone up again, and his eyes widened.

"It feels... different. Like its heavier than before," he set the stone down and said, "please try touching it again. I want to see if it will do anything else."

I wanted to see what would happen as well, but I was also concerned at what might happen when I did.

"How about we take it outside? Just in case it does something that might damage your shop?"

Bud blinked and nodded with a mareepish smile.

"Yeah, let's do that. Excuse me," he called to Andrea and Luna, who turned to look at us, "can you please come with us outside? We are going to test out something and I shouldn't leave the store unattended with people still inside." He covered the stone in the cloth again and put it back into the box.

"No problem," Luna said as she opened the door and flipped a small sign that indicated that the shop was closed. Both of us had helped Bud out in different ways in his shop when we were younger. We mostly did it because we were interested in all the shiny stuff and we got to be close to all of it if we helped him. Thus, we knew our way around the store.

Andrea put the necklace she had been examining back on the shelf and followed us as we went out of the shop and a little ways into the woods so anything that happened would not affect any buildings, hopefully.

Bud located a tall stump and set the box down on it before taking out the stone and unwrapping the cloth from around it. He put the stone, still laying on the cloth, on the stump and stepped back.

"Okay, this time, try poking it and jumping back. Just in case something bad does happen."

As I reached down to touch the stone, Andrea shouted, "hold on! What if he does get hurt?"

I stopped, and said, "it's weird, but I don't think this thing is very dangerous. And anyways, Pokemon bodies are very resilient. I'm hardly hurting despite the fact I was in a battle only a little while ago. But if you don't want me to mess with it, I won't."

She thought for a moment before saying, "fine. But if you get hurt, I'm kicking your furry behind so hard that you'll be pulling hair out when you turn back human."

I flinched and placed my hands over my rear protectively, much to Luna's amusement, before nodding my agreement.

Turning back to the stone, I reached down to touch it again. I barely brushed the stone before vaulting backwards as the stone became a lighter shade of blue than a few seconds previous. Perhaps it was just me, or it seemed to glow slightly from reflecting the suns rays off its now brightly-colored smooth surface.

We waited for it to do anything else, but it just sat there. Still shiny.

Bud moved forward and carefully prodded the stone before picking it up. Still no reaction from the blue stone.

Bud put the stone down and said, "okay, now I want you to try picking it up-"

"What!", Andrea burst out and I held my paws up in a placating gesture.

"Don't worry, Andrea. I've known Bud forever. He wouldn't do anything to harm me."

"He really wouldn't," Luna added.

Andrea finally relented and I went back to the stump.

Everyone, except me, took an unconscious step backwards from the stone when I reached to pick it up.

As I picked it up, held in the middle of my open paw, the stone slowly became heavier. Like it was being filled with something that it did not have before. I waited with baited breath until the stone stopped getting heavier and it finally decided to stop changing its shade of blue.

When it finished. It felt about as heavy as a baseball and it was the same color as the sky on a cloudless day around noon-time. When I felt as though it had finished, whatever it was doing, I brought it to my face and looked at it a little closer. It was the same size and shape as it was before its transformation(?). The only physical differences that seemed to change were its weight and its shinier outside. It was still very smooth and still had no scratches or imperfections that I could see.

"Well?", I heard Bud ask after a few seconds.

I looked up and saw him standing a good four or five steps back from where he had been before I picked up the stone.

"I think it stopped. What now?"

"Try shooting off an aura sphere while holding the stone," Luna suggested and Bud nodded his encouragement.

I turned to where no one was standing and I shot off a weak aura sphere at a tree. It did what I expected it to, nothing special.

There was a minute of disappointed silence before Bud spoke up with, "well, it doesn't seem to enhance your aura capabilities. Not that I can tell anyways. Do you feel any different with it in your paw?"

"Not really. And I don't think it's an enhancer," at their questioning looks, I explained, "something just seems to tell me that it's purpose isn't to enhance."

"What do you think it's used for?", Andrea asked, stepping a little closer as she asked.

I opened my mouth to answer that I didn't know, when suddenly I just seemed to "_know_".

"It's some sort of tool," I said with a certainty that I really shouldn't have possessed. It wasn't my dad's voice talking to me, this felt different. Like the stone held some form of sentience that was pushing me closer to knowing what it was.

"Maybe we should let mom take a look at it. She might know what it is."

I nodded at Luna's suggestion and turned to Bud.

"What do you want for this?"

He blinked and I had the distinct feeling he had completely forgotten that he was selling the stone, as caught up with experimenting with it as he was.

"Er, well. How about we make a deal? If you promise to mess around with the stone and find out all that it can do, then come back and tell me what it does, you can have it for free. That way, if I get any more in stock, I can know what they are worth. So, deal?"

He held out his paw and I shook it.

"Deal. Now we'll be going. I'll see you later."

Bud waved to us as we headed to the training field and he went back to his shop.

We arrived at the training field and saw Pip and Narri standing next to the edge and made our way to them.

"Hey, sorry for keeping you waiting," I said as we approached to catch their attention.

They turned and Pip said, "buy anything interesting?"

"Yeah, but I'll show you later," I put the stone down a little ways away in the cloth that Bud let me keep to protect it.

Pip looked at it, but didn't ask. Instead, she waved for Andrea and me to come closer.

"Alright. Here's the plan. Since we can't put all of Andrea's transforming aura into Jacob, because that might seriously hurt him, I've decided to just put it back into nature."

She waited a second for us to comment, but got nothing aside from blank looks.

"Anyways. What we're going to do is use Jacob's aura as bait, once again to lure the aura out, and this time we will send the aura into the surrounding plant life and this area in general. Since all aura originally came from the earth, it won't damage anything if we send it back."

Once she finished, and we both gave semi-confirmations that we understood, we all sat down next to a cluster of trees.

Pip sat behind Andrea and put one of her paws on her back. She had me sit on their right sides and put a paw on Andrea's shoulder while Pip held her other paw on my back.

Once we were in these positions, Pip said, "now, you're going to feel aura sliding through your body. Be sure to NOT try and take that aura. But you are going to have to concentrate on allowing it to pass through your system. If you don't, then your body will unconsciously block the flow and this will not work. When you feel it flowing through your body, just be ready to release it in any direction except the way it came. Ready?"

I swallowed and was about to nod, but then Andrea shouted, "wait!"

"What's wrong," I asked her.

She seemed to blush slightly and she said, "umm, we forgot to grab me some clothes."

There was a moment of complete silence, filled with awkwardness.

Then Narri said, "I'll go grab you some. Go ahead and start, I'll probably be back by the time you finish." He turned and began sprinting back towards his home and Pip refocused on the task at hand.

"Don't worry, it will take a little while for the reverse transformation to actually start. He'll be back before then. Now, are you ready?"

Andrea nodded and Pip closed her eyes in preparation.

Like last time, I stayed perfectly still and made sure that my paw would not come off of Andrea.

I felt a bit of my aura slip away for almost a full minute before it came back. Then, it was followed by what could only be described as a torrent of aura. I had to force myself to not try and stop it from entering my body. Then I had to make sure not to try and take the aura back into my system. I doubt I would have survived the experience, had I allowed it to return to me.

The best way I could compare it is to picture myself as a planet. And a stream of asteroids are flying by me. For whatever reason, I have to stay close enough for the asteroids to be influenced by my gravity, but far away enough that they do not get pulled onto my surface.

When it felt like my, "pull", was right, I began envisioning the aura leaving my body and travelling deep within the earth. Eventually, I found a point where I could both let the flow travel through my body and release it into the earth steadily and I held it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Andrea become surrounded in blue. Like Alex, when we got rid of his ears, but on a much bigger scale. Her features became indistinct and she was covered in the writhing blue. Little by little, the blue began to fade into her. I saw her hair become blonde and soon her face started returning to normal. It seemed to focus on her head first. I promised myself to look away the second the rest of her body began to transform back.

When her face was almost purely human, I felt something inside my body seem to jump and suddenly the flow of aura that was a torrent, became a flood. I couldn't control it and my body threw up defenses without my consent. It started to feel like something was burning in my core and I looked to see Andrea's partial reverse transformation begin to undo it's hard work in only a few seconds.

I panicked, and immediately snatched my paw from Andrea.

It was a stupid mistake. My dad's voice began shrieking at me that my body needed to get rid of a lot of aura, or I was going to die. Even as I processed his words, I could feel my heart begin to pulse faster and harder until it began to get painful.

Working with a combination of instinct and my dad's knowledge, I slammed my paws against the ground and sent the flood of aura into the earth, ridding myself of as much as possible in as little amount of time.

The world around me became insignificant. I was too busy shoving aura into the earth to notice anything else. Once I felt as though I had gotten rid of all the possibly lethal aura, and maybe a little more, I opened my eyes and my body collapsed.

"Jacob!", several voices called out and I felt myself get pushed so I was laying on my back. My hearing seemed to be malfunctioning at the time, but my vision was alright. So I could see what everyone was doing.

Pip began checking my body and aura for injury while Luna helped her out. Andrea was on her knees holding my paw and she was crying. Narri was standing nearby and I could tell he was worried by how hard he held the clothes in his paws.

I focused in on Andrea and I smiled. Our attempt was not a complete failure. I saw that her hair on the top of her head was much longer and more like her human hair. It was also the same blonde hair she had as a human. I saw that, aside from the black mask-like fur on her face and the aura sensing organs, all the fur on her head was blonde (ears included). From her shoulder to her elbow, the fur was also blonde on each arm. Her hips were now an interesting blend of both blonde and blue fur. Everything else stayed the same, that I could tell.

"Is he gonna be alright?", Andrea asked Pip, I was able to read her lips and I could start to hear a little bit through the haze.

Pip nodded and said, "after a little rest and no aura use for a few hours. He should be back to normal, if with a few aches and pains."

Andrea nodded and then turned back to me with a look that scared me slightly.

She then proceeded to slap me across my face very painfully.

"You idiot! You could've been killed!"

Yup, that's her way of showing love. I probably deserved it, but still. It hurt!

* * *

And thus, my longest chapter comes to an end. It was a fun one to write. Please leave your thoughts and suggestions in a review. Always a pleasure to see those. Feel free to ask for me to put in certain Pokemon or just suggestions in general. I'll also be glad to answer any questions you might want to ask.

Talkingbirdguy, out :).


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